Page 4689 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 7 December 1994
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Mrs Carnell: You said yesterday that it was the award.
MR LAMONT: I am sorry; there is a base award. Do you want a lecture on industrial relations? You have proved your ignorance in pharmacology, marijuana and a range of other issues in the last couple of weeks, Mrs Carnell. Do not demonstrate again this afternoon your ignorance in relation to the industrial relations process.
The simple fact is that an enterprise agreement in relation to this area has been negotiated between the employees and their employer. That enterprise agreement is in place, and it provides for appropriate rates of pay and conditions. There is a difference, Mrs Carnell, between what an employee gets to complete a day's work and what a contractor gets when he contracts to the Government. This may be a subtlety that escapes you. It certainly does not escape most other people in Canberra. The simple fact is that you either do not know or do not understand.
Hospital Waiting Lists
MS ELLIS: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Health. I refer to recent media reports. Would the Minister inform the Assembly whether the allegations that Mrs Carnell made on camera - that he had misled this Assembly on the waiting lists question - are true?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Ms Ellis for the question. We are halfway through the second question time of the week, and this is the first question addressed to me about health. Mrs Carnell, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from her marijuana madness of last week, was on every TV channel in Canberra on Monday, saying, "Mr Connolly has misled the house. I am going to move no confidence. I am going to move censure. I am going to do this. I am going to do that". And, of course, there was not a question yesterday about health or waiting lists. There was not a question today about health or waiting lists. I was staggered to read in the newspaper this morning the statement from Mrs Carnell, again in a desperate attempt to divert attention, "Mr Connolly has been playing politics with medicine". After three years of listening to Mrs Carnell, I say to her, "Mrs Pot, do not call this kettle black", because, if there is somebody who knows about playing politics with medicine, it is you, with the appalling performance you have put in.
However, Mrs Carnell's statements - on camera, but not in here - that I have misled the Assembly are a serious matter. Normally, an allegation of misleading the Assembly is a serious matter that results in a motion of no confidence or a censure motion, instead of these little media stunts. Then, also on camera, she made a more serious allegation - one that I regard more seriously. I am used to these silly no-confidence and censure motions from the Opposition; but she also accused my senior officials of fiddling the books. I think that that is a fairly grubby sort of a thing for an Opposition leader to do; but it is the sort of thing we would expect from Mrs Carnell.
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