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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4433 ..

Mr Berry: If there is an imputation, tell me which one; and I will withdraw it.

MRS CARNELL: You will withdraw any imputation? Okay. That is what you said.

Mr Berry: I have not made any.

MRS CARNELL: I am actually quite happy to answer this. I am amazed that Mr Berry can even ask questions about waiting lists. Waiting lists are not going up. Remember that Mr Berry was Minister for a while. No wonder the system fell apart when he was Minister. If he knew anything about his shadow portfolio of Health - and I think we even made it clear in the estimates process that the way we were spending the extra dollars that we put into elective surgery was predominantly to contract with Calvary - he would know very well that what has actually happened is that Calvary's waiting list has fallen dramatically because we are contracting with Calvary to provide the extra elective surgery in almost all cases. What happens under those circumstances is that Calvary falls and Woden stays about the same.

I think it is really important just to run over the actual monthly figures here. In June 1997, the month that those figures were in place, the waiting list figure was 3,586; in July 1997, 3,564; in August 1997, 3,553; in September, 3,400. That is the lowest level that waiting lists in the ACT have been since 1993, from memory. That is a great outcome. If Mr Berry is going to get his knickers in a knot about which hospital's waiting list is at which level, I can tell him categorically that those are the waiting list figures. They have come down by over 25 per cent since we came to government. Mr Berry should compare that to what he achieved, which was a more than doubling of waiting lists and four blow-outs out of four health budgets.

MR HIRD: My question is to the Chief Minister. I refer to an article in the Canberra Times this morning which stated that the Government had proposed allowing 100 poker machines in the casino and up to 230 machines in hotels that have accommodation. Firstly, Chief Minister, is this report accurate? I know, from the Leader of the Opposition's previous question, that he likes to have true and accurate information. If the report is not accurate, can you advise the parliament about the Government's position on this issue?

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Hird, for, I think, a very important question. It is an issue that we will obviously spend some time debating later today. Today's report is simply not correct. The Government's position on poker machines has been consistent for the past three years; that is, we believe the current arrangements should continue for the life of this Assembly. In fact, all members here would be well aware that the proposal to allow poker machines in casinos and certain hotels was put forward by the Licensed Clubs Association, not by the Government at all.

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