Page 923 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2005
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but only 10,487 tests were conducted. In the first half of 2004-05 only 4,761 tests had been conducted, when the pro rata rate for that period was 6,000.
The health minister said on WIN news on 28 February that the breast screening program was a preventative program. For a preventative program to work, isn’t early detection the key? Why then is the minister not acting with haste to fix the problem and ensure that early detection does occur? The government’s outcome for breast screening, highlighted in the annual reports and budget papers, simply shows that it is failing the women of Canberra when it comes to breast cancer screening. The dedicated staff who work in this area are doing the best they can with limited resources.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition’s time has expired.
Members’ rights
Human rights
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra) (5.53): Mr Speaker, I wish to speak about two things. Briefly, we are currently collating figures to show just how rare it has been for someone who has wanted to speak on an important matter to be granted leave to do so. Invariably, they have been able to do so. We do not have the figures yet, but we will have that information by the time the Assembly next sits. I think it is of concern to see members’ rights being impinged upon by a government that is in the majority but also a government that professes to have great regard for people’s human rights, including the right of free expression. So watch this space on that one.
Getting onto something completely different, of grave concern right round the world is the infringement of people’s basic human rights, including the right to live. Recently, I saw a preview of an excellent film which I commend to members, that is, Hotel Rwanda. It is a brilliant film that deals with the tragic and horrendous events in Rwanda in 1994 when the Hutu tribe there basically tried to wipe out the Tutsi tribe by engaging in horrendous acts of genocide. The film portrays that brilliantly.
The film also portrays the utter frustration of some of the peacekeepers, especially the officer in charge, a Canadian colonel, at the absolute limitations placed on what they could do. A number of the peacekeepers—I think they were Pakistani soldiers—were summarily executed by mobs. The film also shows the horrendous corruption in Rwanda and is a great tribute to a very brave man who saved about 1,200 Tutsis in the hotel he was managing. It is a film that shows the very worst that human beings are capable of.
Mr Smyth: And the best.
MR STEFANIAK: And the best, yes. As well as horrendous events such as the Holocaust of some 60 years ago, there have been examples in recent times of genocide—Pol Pot, Rwanda. At present, in southern Sudan acts of horrendous cruelty and genocide are being committed.
Mr Smyth: Saddam Hussein attacking the Kurds.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Smyth mentions the Kurds and the attempt at genocide there by the regime of Saddam Hussein. It is obviously difficult to force very powerful countries,
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