Page 2594 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
and Mr Withers, the correspondence relating to which does no credit to any properly managed organisation? When are we going to have frankness and an impression that this Minister, Mr Berry, is receiving the full, unqualified support of his senior bureaucrat, Mr Bissett? I do not, regrettably, get the impression that the Minister is blessed with dedicated and totally committed top pyramidal officials. For that reason the Rally is of the view that this problem is of such a dimension, the $2.5m quarterly blow-out is of sufficient importance to a territory - - -
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I find it impossible to sit back and listen to Mr Collaery's - - -
MR COLLAERY: Well, I sat back before.
MR SPEAKER: What is your point of order, Mr Berry?
Mr Berry: To make a very serious attack on two hardworking people within the system, I think, is most inappropriate.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Minister Berry, that is not a point of order.
Mr Berry: They were named in the place.
MR SPEAKER: You are debating the point of order. Please proceed, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Rally takes the view that the pyramid, at the top of which there exists this Minister, requires firm direction and some dramatic steps to bring this public issue to light and to resolve this matter of acute public concern. One way in which the Minister can do it is to give confidence to a board of management, a structural situation that has defined objectives, responsibilities and a reporting duty, so that interposed between the Minister and the elements of the bureaucracy is a competent oversighting board, such as exists elsewhere in the country.
I do recognise, of course, the irony that Dr Kearney came from Adelaide and last Wednesday's Advertiser in Adelaide carried a letter, I believe from 20 doctors, about chaos at Daw Park hospital. I have not confirmed that yet. So really there are many straws in the wind; this Minister has not brought them together. This is not a censure motion as such but certainly, Minister, you have a problem on your hands which is not evidently being solved and in relation to which you are not evidently offering solutions.
The Rally has the advantage of being able to have a dialogue with the unions, surprising though that may seem to you. Certainly from that personal dialogue it is apparent to me that you do not have the confidence across the board that the Chief Minister suggested. It is not a question of personal confidence in you. I am sure that everyone in this house finds this Minister a most agreeable
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .