Recently a Greek Territorian, who had lived and worked for 40 years in the Territory, lay dead and unaccounted for in the Royal Darwin Hospital morgue for over 3 months. The minister is aware of this serious matter, as I wrote to him 3 weeks ago. But since he has failed to respond, I ask the minister what procedures broke down to enable this indignity to occur, and will the minister apologise to the deceased man’s friends and to Darwin’s Greek community, and will he guarantee this disgraceful episode will not occur again?

ANSWER

Mr Speaker, I thank the member for the question. The gentleman in question, it is true, died in the Accident and Emergency department at Royal Darwin, and it is true that his remains were in the mortuary from late February right through to May. There are a series of issues relating to this that come from outside of Royal Darwin. They are issues that relate to his last place of residence, the role of the Public Trustee, including the role of the Royal Darwin hospital.

I assure members that there was no offence intended. I members that the issues relating to the gentleman in question have been investigated. I have asked for a detailed review of them. I have also asked that the Greek Orthodox community be contacted about the details relating to the gentleman’s death and the circumstances of the couple of months it took before his remains were interned.

I shall contact the Leader of the Opposition regarding this at a later date.