Page 1444 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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accommodation site or as a new home for the Queen Elizabeth II Home for Mothers and Babies is a possibility which, as far as I am aware, is not canvassed elsewhere but should perhaps be canvassed.
The point is that we need to make those decisions in light of all these options, and it would be a grave mistake to rush into a decision prematurely. The whole context in which a decision about Royal Canberra is made is very complex. It is not possible to say with certainty that particular options will cost a certain amount or particular courses of action that are open to us will produce a certain benefit over a period of time, given the fact that there are extensive variables which will have impacts for many years to come.
I refer in particular to page 14 of the report of the steering committee, and on that page reference is made to some of the financial constraints under which governments have to work when making a decision about that site. The report says:
The main findings of the third inquiry into the Finances of the ACT Administration -
and that, of course, is a reference to the Grants Commission inquiry into the ACT's finances -
concluded that after allowing for "needs" actual expenditure exceeded the standardised health services expenditure -
that is a nationally determined thing -
by $13.6m.
That is 9.45 per cent, or $51.49 per capita. It goes on to say:
Victoria and Western Australia were also above standard by between eight and nine per cent.
I can see from that that the ACT deviates the most from that mean and is the highest above standardised health service expenditure of any of the Australian jurisdictions. That is a matter of concern, but if one also refers to page 58 of the report one sees the following:
Whichever option is chosen, the disability factor recognised by the Grants Commission as an effect of the Commonwealth policy to maintain three hospitals could be lost at the next inquiry.
What the report is saying is that the bases on which the ACT has to make a decision about the future viability of one particular hospital or all three will depend to some extent on ways in which the Commonwealth - which, after all, is by far the biggest supplier of funding for our
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