Page 1422 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 April 2005

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MR SPEAKER: I will ask him to stick to the subject matter, and the subject matter of the question was an additional payment of $12,000.

MR STANHOPE: He got a bit defensive. On a question asked of me around pay being received by public servants, it is relevant to reflect on the attitude of the Liberal Party to pay and public servants. Mr Mulcahy is on the record in this place as saying that public servants are paid too much. This is his particular philosophy; that is his position; that is his attitude.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, come back to the subject matter of the supplementary question.

MR STANHOPE: I will. The subject matter goes to issues such as the attitude and behaviour displayed in previous statements. From time to time we reflect on exactly what it is that Mr Mulcahy stands for. We know what he stands for on behalf of the Liberal Party in relation to pay for public servants.

I was intrigued that the only member of the Liberal Party not to speak in a recent debate about smoking in clubs was Mr Mulcahy: a previous advocate for the tobacco industry; somebody who made his living selling tobacco to children.

Members interjecting—

MR SPEAKER: Order! Everybody sit down. Mrs Dunne, sit down. Chief Minister, come back to the subject matter or resume your seat.

Mrs Dunne: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I ask that the Chief Minister be relevant, because I did not speak on that debate either.

MR SPEAKER: I have dealt with that. Resume your seat. Have you finished Chief Minister?

MR STANHOPE: I had not. I thought I was getting to the nub of the double standard that is being applied by the Liberal Party in relation to pay for public servants and the ethics of selling tobacco to children.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister’s time has expired.

Health—insurance claims

MS MacDONALD: My question is to the Minister for Health, Mr Corbell. Minister, in today’s media there are claims that the ACT government could face large medical negligence payments due to the failure of the health department to report potential claims to its insurer. Minister, can you tell the Assembly if these reports are correct and how this situation arose?

MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Macdonald for the question. This is an important issue and one that, I note, was reported on in the Canberra Times this morning. Historically, I think it is important to put on the record that until the late 1990s, the ACT government


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