Ms LINDA BURNEY: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health. Will the Minister apologise to Mr Christopher Hull for saying, "I'm sorry he isn't in a room with chandeliers and glorious views", after he was forced to use a cowbell to raise the attention of nurses because he was sleeping in a storage room?

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: Here we go again, exaggerating, telling half-truths. A storage room? How interesting.

The SPEAKER: Order! An Opposition member asked the question, and Opposition members should listen to the answer.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: It was a treatment room when the member's party was in government, but it is a storage room now that they are in opposition. It is a cowbell now they are in opposition; it was a bell or a ringer when they were in government. Come now! The member for Canterbury cannot have it both ways. The reality is that she was a member of a government that ran down the hospital system and closed hospital beds at the worst time, when there was something like a 4,000 beds shortage in New South Wales.

[Interruption]

Yes, it was a shame. The member for Canterbury says, "Shame", and we say it was an absolute shame. At one time there were 4,000 fewer beds. With the change of government the situation has been clawed back somewhat. But there were still more than 1,000 beds closed when Labor was in office.

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the Opposition to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: The impact of that is that patients cannot be provided with treatment.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Canterbury will come to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: They cannot be found beds in wards. I should acknowledge that this is Education Week. I welcome everyone in the public gallery and all who have a particular interest in Education Week, particularly the Minister for Education.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Marrickville will come to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: I am trying to educate Opposition members about what they said when they were in government. The reality is that they closed hospital beds, and that means that patients cannot always be found a bed. Let me tell the House some particulars about this patient.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on both sides of the Chamber will to come to order. I remind members that interjections are disorderly at all times. An Opposition member has asked the question, and members should listen to the reply in silence.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: Let me come to this particular patient. The reality is that the patient had had an injury some time previously, had gone back into hospital and was actually waiting for a rehabilitation bed. The reality is that he was put in a 4-bed ward but he did not like the 4-bed ward because a man in it was snoring. He asked to be moved to a single-bed ward, and was told that there were none available but that there was a treatment room. He chose to go into the treatment room. He then demanded a television. There was not a television in the treatment room. He was provided with a portable television. He still was not happy with that.

When the first single-bed ward became available, he was moved into it. Eventually, he was found a rehabilitation bed in another facility. That is the truth about this patient. It was his choice to go into the treatment room. He was very happy with it. When he could not get an installed television, he was not happy with the portable television that he was given. He was then offered another bed. So the reality is that this man wanted what was not available, because when Labor was in government it closed down a whole lot of hospital beds, and that meant that there were simply not enough to go round. That is why we have so many—

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for Canterbury to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: The Opposition seems to be seeking a lot more information, so let us examine how many people are actually waiting for elective treatment in our hospitals. The reality is that there are up to 30,000 more than that lot opposite admitted to when they were in government.

Dr Andrew McDonald: Why don't you publish the figures?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Macquarie Fields will come to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: We are publishing the figures; they are published through the Bureau of Health Information.

Dr Andrew McDonald: They are not on the site.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: They will be.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Macquarie Fields will come to order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: It is fascinating that the member for Macquarie Fields is raising this issue because he is a doctor. His colleagues will be telling him that there was a clause in the figures—

Ms Linda Burney: Point of order: My point is taken under Standing Order 129. The Minister has told us how ungrateful this patient is. Is the Minister going to apologise to him?

The SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order.

Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: Certainly not. I believe the Opposition should be apologising for the 16 years of total mess it made of the health system. The Opposition should apologise to all those patients who are not included on waiting lists, and they should apologise for the beds that they closed and for the fraudulent count of beds. Watch this space for information about the disaster that they created in managing the health system.