Page 4080 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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Mr Kaine: It is like French clocks.
MR HUMPHRIES: It could be. Does the Minister still pretend that he supports the policy of buying local products or even Australian products wherever possible?
MR BERRY: What a joke! I recall the issue. I must recall the issue about Mrs Carnell. She was complaining about flags being made outside of the ACT. She really wanted the border gates put up again so that we could have customs duty on everything that came to the ACT; a bit of protectionism to protect industry in the ACT. She did not want ACT businesses to compete with businesses outside of the ACT.
Mrs Carnell: They sell Cadbury's.
MR BERRY: Who owns Cadbury's?
Mrs Carnell: You know where they are manufactured, don't you?
Mr Humphries: They are Australian made.
MR BERRY: Who owns them?
Mrs Carnell: They are Australian made.
Mr Connolly: No, New Zealand. Look at your wrapper.
Mr Humphries: They are Australian. They are made in Tasmania.
Mr Connolly: The bulk of them are made in New Zealand these days.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The Minister is well able to answer the question without all that assistance. Mr Berry has the floor.
MR BERRY: I have the floor. When I first heard about the accreditation of Woden Valley Hospital we were all waiting with bated breath. We knew that the accreditation process had been gone through and we were very apprehensive about the result. People, particularly Mrs Carnell, had been criticising the hospital system so much that some people were convinced that she was right. She is not. She is never right, so nothing has changed.
The accreditation news came through to me and I was over the moon because all of the staff out there who had put such a lot of work into their jobs and their professions had come up with a great result - accreditation for our hospital for a full three years. I wanted to do something very quickly in relation to that, so I asked somebody to get some chocolates. I needed to get out there quickly that afternoon. I think they probably bought them from a Canberra shop which probably made some profit out of it. When you are driving around in the Mercedes or the BMW or the little imported job from Japan, Mr Humphries, you might think about that as well. As far as I was concerned, good quality merchandise needed to be procured in a big lot, and it was procured and given out to the people who really deserved it.
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