David Norris (Independent)

I second the non-contentious proposal by my colleague, Senator O'Toole, for a change to the Order of Business. I commend Mr. Justice Carney. I listened to the broadcast this morning and read the text of his speech. I thought it was sensitive, measured and judicious. It raised a number of extremely important points that we should debate. It was the right forum. It was a lecture and he held off on speaking last year because of the sensitive nature of the case. It took courage to do that because of the public sympathy for the suffering of the families involved but he made the point that because of the unscripted nature of the remarks at the end of that statement, it had a serious negative impact on the intention of his judgment which was to permit the other young man, Wayne O'Donoghue, to look towards the reconstruction of a shattered life.

He also made points, which were well made, about the intervention of the media, particularly about the its sensational elements. The Government appears to wish to reintroduce the Defamation Bill and the Privacy Bill is on the Order Paper. A press ombudsman has been appointed. We have a press council, even though the Bill was discarded. Would the existence of the press ombudsman or the press council have stopped that? I do not believe so.

I agree with Senator Fitzgerald about the situation regarding the health service and ask for a debate on that. I, too, am aware of the case of the stroke victim she mentioned. Another case of a stroke victim, who has been reduced from a full regime of physiotherapy to three hours, been drawn to my attention. On the morning this man was to be transferred to a nursing home, the family were told, just as they were expecting the ambulance to take him, that it would not happen because the funding had been withdrawn. It is unconscionable that Government spokespersons maintain there is no impact on patients. I cannot think of a more catastrophic impact than that.