Page 1899 - Week 09 - Thursday, 19 October 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
delivery system which is inefficient, ineffective and lacks the confidence of the community that it is supposed to serve. Yet the Minister and the Government have done absolutely nothing about it, except in their budget to nibble around the edges a little bit - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Kaine, please get to the point.
MR KAINE: I am getting there, Mr Speaker. They have nibbled around the edges a bit in terms of overlap of nurses' shifts and such minor things as that. Mr Speaker, I would like to see, instead of the Labor Government simply perpetuating an efficient, ineffective health delivery system - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR KAINE: I am talking up the system, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, please resume your seat. I will point out to all members that, if you are claiming to be misrepresented, you must not debate the issue. You must state where you have been misrepresented. Please proceed, Mr Kaine.
MR KAINE: I am simply stating my position and that of the Liberal Party. If anybody, at the end of my exposition, can say that I or the Liberal Party have been indulging in talking down the Canberra Hospital, I would like the Minister who made that statement to justify it. We are not talking down the health delivery system; we are not talking down the Canberra Hospital. What we are trying to do, Mr Speaker, is to talk it up. We know the significance of the Royal Canberra Hospital, and we know its significance in the context of a total health delivery service. Instead of making derogatory remarks about me or the Liberal Party and our attitude to health delivery service, I would like the Minister to do an analysis of the health delivery service over which he presides. Let him provide some answers that produce a delivery service that this community has some confidence in, at a cost not greater than that same service costs somewhere else. If he can prove that the Liberal Party has ever said anything other than that in connection with the Royal Canberra Hospital, I would like him to produce the evidence now.
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health): Mr Speaker, like Mr Kaine, I claim to have been misrepresented.
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: Mr Kaine made some very serious allegations and very hurtful allegations against the Government about its treatment of the health system.
Mr Kaine: I regret that, Mr Berry.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .