Scan Scam Lies Exposed

Date: 15 May 2000

Shadow Health Minister, Ms Jenny Macklin said the embattled Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge yesterday lied to the Australian people about when he first knew about crucial flaws in the evidence he has used to defend himself in the MRI Scan Scam.

"Dr Wooldridge's six month covered-up has been exposed. His defence is in tatters. There is no one else to blame he must resign," Ms Macklin said.

"Yesterday he announced an inquiry into why he failed to correct the record in Parliament. This means he will be investigating his own actions.

"Dr Wooldridge is a repeat offender against the Prime Minister's own Ministerial Guidelines and it is time for him to resign or be sacked," Ms Macklin said.

Dr Wooldridge yesterday announced that he would establish a departmental inquiry to investigate why he did not inform Parliament that a statutory declaration he had tabled in Parliament contained incorrect information.

"As a Minister, the obligation rests solely with Dr Wooldridge to correct the record on the floor of Parliament - not anyone else. Dr Wooldridge will have to investigate his own behaviour. It is disgraceful that he is now trying to turn the blame onto the public service.

"This statutory declaration was central to Dr Wooldridge's defence. It is now clear that it was created in haste at Dr Wooldridge's request and contains uncertain recollections of a meeting held 16 months earlier.

"On Friday morning, Dr Wooldridge told the ABC AM program that the first he knew of the faulty statutory declaration was on Thursday.

"He has now been forced to admit that this was a lie. The error had been pointed out by the radiologist wrongly named as being at the meeting. The Minister received a briefing note from his Department about it in November 1999. He actually signed off on the recommendation that a correction should be tabled in Parliament - but failed to do so.

"Failing to correct wrong information given to Parliament has traditionally been grounds for a Minister to resign in disgrace.

"If Dr Wooldridge won't resign, the Prime Minister should sack him," Ms Macklin said

For further information

Contact:	Andrew Herington
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	0418 573 504
WWW:	http://www.alp.org.au

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