Page 1937 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Papers
Mr Corbell presented the following paper:
Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Bill 2012—Government amendments—explanatory statement.
Sitting suspended from 12.32 to 2 pm.
Questions without notice
Canberra Hospital—emergency department data
MR SESELJA: My question is to the Minister for Health. In the Canberra Weekly published today, an article about the manipulated emergency department data quotes you in regard to your personal conflict of interest as saying:
… we’ve come out and told the community everything we know on Monday evening.
The article continues:
Except they hadn’t. There was no mention of the family connection. And there was to be no mention during the Thursday interview … The decision not to go public straight away with that second bit of information has been seen by many to be a serious error of judgment.
Minister, was your decision not to disclose your conflict of interest a serious error of judgement?
MS GALLAGHER: No, it was not. I have read the article too. People write what they want to write. I know how I have behaved since I was aware of this information. I have behaved honestly and with integrity. And yes, I have sought counsel about decisions that I might need to take, and those were around a perception of a conflict of interest—not a conflict of interest as the Liberal Party would like to peddle—and how to deal with that perception of a conflict of interest. And yes, I took several pieces of advice and it took a couple of days. When I had made my decision about how to handle it, I made that decision public.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Minister, were you being truthful on 27 April in an interview on ABC 666 when you stated that you were open and transparent on the issue, given the delay in disclosing the conflict of interest to the community?
MS GALLAGHER: Again it is not a conflict of interest. I have made a decision to avoid a perception of a conflict of interest situation occurring and my answers to every question I have been asked on this matter have been truthful at all times.
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