Page 365 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 1990
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"Look what I said about you. I'm right in the faction", left in the faction, centre in the faction, or whatever it may be. Mr Speaker, I think people in the Assembly tonight would agree with me when I say: let us put an end to this sort of discussion here and now; let us confine ourselves to issues that are of concern to Canberra, not the nation.
Mr Berry: Like no self-government.
MR DUBY: That is right. It has nothing to do with Tasmania, Mr Berry. Let us confine ourselves here to issues to do with Canberra and stop trying to generate election fever to score points on behalf of Federal members of the ACT, no matter what side of the house and what side of politics they might come from. The issues are local. Let us keep them that way. I hope this is the last adjournment debate that we have of this nature, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I draw Mr Duby's attention to the standing orders. He might read them and find out that we can debate anything we like in the adjournment debate.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Berry. There is no point of order.
MR DUBY: It is not a point of order, but it epitomises the sort of thing I am talking about, Mr Berry. We can talk about anything we like here in the adjournment debates, but what is the point of raising matters which are not of concern to the ACT community? Come election day, people are intelligent enough to be able to make their decisions about who they want to vote for and who they do not want to vote for in the Federal scene. I do not think they need to pour over the Hansard and decide, "Oh, well, that's a good point, Wayne. You've convinced me". Let us leave it at that. Let us keep to the issues that we should be raising in the ACT Assembly.
Health Services
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (9.36): Mr Speaker, I want to speak about certain Canberra matters, such as a birthing centre, high intervention rates and a 24-hour mental health crisis service. I have taken the advice of Mr Duby in localising issues that might be debated during this period. Unfortunately, because of lack of time, I was not able to contribute to the debate this afternoon on the matter of public importance. Therefore, I thought I might comment now on some of the suggestions that came from the other side of the house during that debate.
Mr Berry in particular commented on some ideas. He mentioned that a birthing centre was an idea that ought to be explored seriously by the Government. I have looked at this issue, and I accept that what he says has some
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