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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2912 ..

Mr Berry: "It is somebody else's fault; I did not know".

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Berry.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, internal audits are exactly that. They are not made public and when new governments come to office internal audits commissioned by previous governments are not necessarily brought to their attention. Mr Berry would know that. Mr Speaker, if those opposite had started any implementation process on the internal audit of 1994, we then would have known about it; but the fact was that the then Minister, Mr Connolly, put it in the bottom drawer and there was no implementation process in place. There was nothing in place from 1994 to when we got into government in March of the next year. With an internal audit not made public and put in the bottom drawer, no wonder nobody knew that it existed.

It came to my notice that it existed when it was, I think, initially raised in this place, or the Auditor-General indicated that he was going to have another look at salaried medical officers - something that I was very positive about. Then information surfaced about this June 1994 internal audit. It was not tabled in this place or made public. Nobody was told about it. It had been put in the bottom drawer with no implementation plan at all. Mr Speaker, that was under Mr Connolly.

Mr Berry: Ha, ha, ha!

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry laughs, but June - - -

Mr Berry: You should stop telling jokes.

MRS CARNELL: No, no. Mr Speaker, from June 1994 there was no implementation plan whatsoever up until March the next year, when we came to government. There is an interesting set of figures. Mr Berry just made the comment that the Auditor-General brought down his first report in June this year, and I think the question that he asked me was what the Government has done. If we had emulated those opposite we would have done nothing, like they did nothing with the June 1994 report. But, Mr Speaker, we have done something.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. Mrs Carnell is mistaken. That is not what I said. I said, "Why has the Chief Minister done nothing since 1995?".

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Mr Berry: She is just mistaken.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. If I keep getting frivolous points of order I will deal with those too.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the Auditor-General brought down his report in June this year and a quite significant amount of work has been done since then. Work had been done prior to the report being brought down as well - such things as questionnaires going out to salaried medical practitioners, and other things. But let us have a look,

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