Page 4817 - Week 16 - Thursday, 29 November 1990
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Mr Moore: Last night 150 people unanimously voted against it.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am advised that no other teachers at the school will serve on the board in place of those two teachers, so the 150 you refer to obviously could not have included any teachers, Mr Moore. The Teachers Federation has also been kept well informed of their decision. I am instructed that the teachers saw the situation at Cook as a conflict of interests which was making it difficult for them to carry out their normal professional duties, given the constraints in time with little more than two weeks to the end of term.
Under these circumstances, the Cook Primary School Board will be without a quorum, thus rendering it impossible for it to perform its normal functions. For the board to operate a teacher and a parent representative must be present for a quorum to exist. I am instructed, though, that no further meetings of the Cook Primary School Board had been planned, and as such that withdrawal should not constitute a major problem in the operation of the school for the next two or three weeks.
Royal Canberra Hospital
MR BERRY: My question is directed to Mr Humphries as the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts. I refer the Minister to his answer yesterday, that he had not seen a letter from a senior physician at Royal Canberra Hospital North about the black listing of eight senior doctors by senior bureaucrats within the health department. Is the Minister aware that his office faxed a copy of that letter to the Canberra Times yesterday? Will the Minister now indicate whether the meeting between Messrs Bissett and Withers and members of the press was intended to discredit those doctors because of their role in trying to save Royal Canberra Hospital? Did that meeting occur with the Minister's approval, and does he support attempts by his senior bureaucrats to stifle legitimate criticism?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I am certainly aware that a letter was faxed from my office to the Canberra Times. Although I do not know the time that that was done, I am sure it was done after Mr Berry raised the question in question time. The letter was then sought by my office and sent on to the Canberra Times for its own information. There cannot be any question that, to the best of my knowledge, the information has now come to my attention. It was raised by Mr Berry yesterday and that is why I took the trouble to find out what was going on.
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