Mr REED - 1995-03-01
Mr REED (Health and Community Services): Mr Speaker, I take this opportunity to provide an answer to a question. I believe it was asked by the member for MacDonnell last week. It related to ...
Mr Bailey: It could have been mine from 4 years ago. It is on the Question Paper.
Mr REED: You can rest assured that you will not receive an answer while ...
Mr Palmer: Move a substantive motion.
Mr Perron: It probably fell off 3 years ago when the parliament was prorogued. You had better look at it again.
Mr REED: Mr Speaker ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable minister is on his feet to provide an answer to a question. I ask members to listen in silence.
Mr REED: It was an appalling display of bad manners on the part of the member for Wanguri.
The member for MacDonnell asked a question last Wednesday which alleged that pressure had been brought to bear on officers of the Department of Health and Community Services in relation to their ability to provide both verbal and written submissions to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory. As is so often the case, I have been unable to find that any such pressure was applied to officers of the department. This seems to be yet another case of rumour and innuendo introduced by the
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member for MacDonnell. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Community Services assures me that staff of the department will have the ability to provide information as required. I reiterate that, in this regard, we have again witnessed false allegations from the member for MacDonnell.
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Mr Bailey: It could have been mine from 4 years ago. It is on the Question Paper.
Mr REED: You can rest assured that you will not receive an answer while ...
Mr Palmer: Move a substantive motion.
Mr Perron: It probably fell off 3 years ago when the parliament was prorogued. You had better look at it again.
Mr REED: Mr Speaker ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable minister is on his feet to provide an answer to a question. I ask members to listen in silence.
Mr REED: It was an appalling display of bad manners on the part of the member for Wanguri.
The member for MacDonnell asked a question last Wednesday which alleged that pressure had been brought to bear on officers of the Department of Health and Community Services in relation to their ability to provide both verbal and written submissions to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory. As is so often the case, I have been unable to find that any such pressure was applied to officers of the department. This seems to be yet another case of rumour and innuendo introduced by the
Page 480
member for MacDonnell. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Community Services assures me that staff of the department will have the ability to provide information as required. I reiterate that, in this regard, we have again witnessed false allegations from the member for MacDonnell.
Page 481
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016