Mr HENDERSON - 2001-06-26
I refer the minister to the fact that he acknowledged earlier, that the Director of Tracy Aged Care Nursing Home in Darwin is one Pam Fitton. This person is a well known CLP identity who recently sought preselection for the CLP in the seat of Nightcliff. I refer the minister to the material before the Nurses Board concerning Pam Fitton’s alarming misconduct. One submission from a former staff member recalled that she was warned that Pam Fitton has a high profile in the CLP and that, by using her connections, she had driven people who had raised concerns about her practices out of Darwin.
Minister, is it not a fact that you failed elderly residents at Tracy Lodge because the Director, Pam Fitton, is a CLP mate?
ANSWER
The answer, Mr Speaker, is no. The answer is no. The allegation is put that if some people who belong to a particular party, and that somehow they are under investigation by an appropriately independent authority, that in some way shape or form we intervene. I guess the corollary is that if it was a Labor Party member they were setting up in the crosshairs, that we would be sooling them on. Well, that is nonsensical, an absolutely nonsensical proposition and it is nonsensical on a number of counts.
In the first place, it is not for the independent, professional registration boards to inform me of the competence or otherwise of people, other than to register them or otherwise. So issues relating to complaints, for instance against a doctor, is a matter that is held as a very confidential investigation and is held as an investigation that has taken place by peers. There is the capacity to bring in legal representatives. There is the capacity to bring in specialist medical advice, nursing advice ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: The one thing they do not do is bring in political advice. So they do not say: ‘These are the issues relating to these pharmaceutical issues or these nursing competence issues or these issues about professional behaviour - gee we had better bring the minister down and ask him’.
If that is what your alleging, I can tell you you have defamed many, many people on medical registration boards, not just nursing - Aboriginal Health Boards, the medical boards, the therapy boards. There are many people who sit on these, and they are not necessarily public servants. I would not know or presume to know how they voted, but I will say they are people who are held in high esteem in the community.
We advertise these vacancies, we make sure the people we put on have the respect from the fraternity which they are representing. I would say for the Labor Party to make an assumption that there is room for political manipulation within this process gives us first a little insight into how these dudes would run government in the unfortunate event that Territorians ever saw them as a government - that is, they would be interventionists by the very nature of the question.
Mr PALMER (Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Minister, is it not a fact that you failed elderly residents at Tracy Lodge because the Director, Pam Fitton, is a CLP mate?
ANSWER
The answer, Mr Speaker, is no. The answer is no. The allegation is put that if some people who belong to a particular party, and that somehow they are under investigation by an appropriately independent authority, that in some way shape or form we intervene. I guess the corollary is that if it was a Labor Party member they were setting up in the crosshairs, that we would be sooling them on. Well, that is nonsensical, an absolutely nonsensical proposition and it is nonsensical on a number of counts.
In the first place, it is not for the independent, professional registration boards to inform me of the competence or otherwise of people, other than to register them or otherwise. So issues relating to complaints, for instance against a doctor, is a matter that is held as a very confidential investigation and is held as an investigation that has taken place by peers. There is the capacity to bring in legal representatives. There is the capacity to bring in specialist medical advice, nursing advice ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: The one thing they do not do is bring in political advice. So they do not say: ‘These are the issues relating to these pharmaceutical issues or these nursing competence issues or these issues about professional behaviour - gee we had better bring the minister down and ask him’.
If that is what your alleging, I can tell you you have defamed many, many people on medical registration boards, not just nursing - Aboriginal Health Boards, the medical boards, the therapy boards. There are many people who sit on these, and they are not necessarily public servants. I would not know or presume to know how they voted, but I will say they are people who are held in high esteem in the community.
We advertise these vacancies, we make sure the people we put on have the respect from the fraternity which they are representing. I would say for the Labor Party to make an assumption that there is room for political manipulation within this process gives us first a little insight into how these dudes would run government in the unfortunate event that Territorians ever saw them as a government - that is, they would be interventionists by the very nature of the question.
Mr PALMER (Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016