Page 2020 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 June 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ambulance Service - Overtime and Redundancy Payments
MRS CARNELL: My question is to the Minister for Health, Mr Berry. I refer the Minister to his department's press release, issued yesterday, regarding alleged overpayments to ACT ambulance officers, in which it is stated that overpayments amounted to $20,000. I ask the Minister why he has indicated that the overpayments were $20,000, when in fact they were closer to $70,000, as indicated in these ACT Health documents, which I am happy now to table. What new maths or inventive procedures did the Minister's department use to convert $70,000 worth of overpayments and penalty payments to the now stated $20,000?
MADAM SPEAKER: You will need leave to table that, Mrs Carnell.
Leave granted.
Mrs Carnell: It is rather a lot.
MR BERRY: What are these - the reports?
Mrs Carnell: They are wages sheets.
Ms Follett: With names on them? Oh, come on!
MR BERRY: With workers' names on them? Madam Speaker, this entire matter is a very interesting exercise. What occurred, Madam Speaker, was that there was a discovery that something was not quite right in relation to the payment of allowances, and there were inquiries in relation to it. I note that on 14 April this year Mrs Carnell was reported as follows:
She called on the Minister for Health, Wayne Berry, yesterday to clear the air about the overpayment allegations and to make public any findings, adverse or otherwise.
I see that a media release has now been issued, which clears the air. It says that there was an amount of $20,000 paid without approval. It also says that ACT Health will institute recovery of $6,804. That clears the air. We have done exactly what you say. But it is too much, too little; too fast, too slow. We can never get it right as far as you are concerned. So, we have cleared the air.
Madam Speaker, I also observe that there was some complaint by Mrs Carnell about the publicity surrounding this issue, particularly in relation to those two ambulance officers, I think, who have been the subject of publicity. I have to say, Madam Speaker, that neither I nor my department have sought to publicise the two officers whose pictures appeared in the Canberra Times article of 10 April 1993 and who were quoted in other articles as well. I think that the officers themselves, or at least one of them, can bear some of the responsibility for the publicity. Of course, due process has led to a position where the air has been cleared as you requested.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .