Page 1786 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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it is pretty obvious why they would ask for that because there has been something of a witch-hunt about the source of that claim. But it was not an anonymous submission to the Assembly committee.
Much of what the minister said tried to downplay the fact that the information she gave the Assembly was wrong. The minister had many opportunities through the April sitting to admit she had got it wrong. An email exchange she received on the last Saturday in March—that is my recollection—pointed out to her that the information she gave was wrong. There were a number of opportunities as a result of questions on notice for the minister to say that she had got it wrong.
She has, here today, admitted she got it wrong and has gone so far as to say, “I really can’t comment. There are no substantiated cases.” However, the minister has revealed that in the last two years there have been at least five claims in this area, none of which so far have been substantiated. But the fact that there are claims of examinations without consent is a concern. The minister also made it perfectly clear in her statement that staff are concerned about this, which is why they acted in the way they did.
I make the point that back in February, when this anonymous complaint was made, the staff at the Canberra Hospital acted absolutely and completely appropriately and in an extraordinarily timely fashion. If you look at the email trail sent to me and the minister, less than an hour transpired from when the complaint was made to when a senior nurse in the birthing centre sent a reminder to staff about these issues.
I compliment staff at the hospital for their very quick action in this. They acted in exactly the right way and they did it promptly. I think the minister has done them a great disservice by trying to play this down and claiming in this place that no such event took place. She could have been of assistance to her staff by saying, “Yes, we received this complaint and the staff acted in an exemplary way”. They did; on the basis of the information available to them the staff acted in an exemplary way.
Three or four quick emails were sent. One was referred to somebody who referred it to somebody else and within an hour a general message had gone out to maternity staff saying, “This has come to our attention. This is an issue. These are the things you need to remember.” Congratulations to the staff for doing that; they did a great job. The minister did them a disservice by saying, “There’s nothing to see here”.
When it was brought to her attention that she may have been badly briefed, she persisted in saying, “There’s nothing to see here,” and she politicised it by saying this was a base and grubby attack by the Canberra Liberals. This was not a base and grubby attack by the Canberra Liberals; it was bringing to the attention of the Assembly and the community a serious concern raised by a member of the public.
The minister has got herself into the situation where, today, she has had to come in here and make a statement like this for whatever reason—perhaps she thought she could tough it out and then discovered she could not or perhaps she was just badly advised and has not learnt from the fact that she is very frequently badly advised—trying to make the best of it by attacking the Canberra Liberals, by attacking the
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