Page 2380 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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I am referring in particular to one matter that caught my eye, and that was the position of the ambulance subscription currently being charged to members of the ACT ambulance service. Members present on the day concerned will be aware that, as from the beginning of next year, a levy will be collected from health insurers in the ACT to contribute to the ambulance fund. That means that all contributors to private health schemes in the ACT will be automatic members, if you like, of the ACT ambulance service. They will certainly be entitled to the free use of the ambulance service.
It was pointed out in the course of the estimates hearing that those who already contributed to the ambulance scheme may also be the same people in some cases who contribute to private health insurance and that many of those people have, in recent months, been paying ambulance subscriptions with the intention of continuing to belong to their health funds and, in effect, paying twice for the same service.
I was gratified to see the head of Minister Berry's department acknowledge that this was a problem that would be addressed quickly by the Government. I have not noticed any statement by the Government or by the Minister in the house on this matter, and I hope that it is being addressed promptly. As I said at the time, it is administratively sloppy to collect money from people by sending them out an invoice to say, "Your subscription to the ambulance service is now due", to give them their money back and then, within a few weeks or months, to send them another letter saying, "Here is a cheque for the amount you have overpaid because, being a subscriber to a health fund, you no longer need to pay this amount".
There is the other complication. If members of that fund do not advise the Government, as of course they would not, that they belong to a health fund, how could the Government know that, except by asking? That raises a further administrative burden. I know that there is legislation coming before us today which attempts to relieve unnecessary administrative burdens and I wonder whether the Government has looked at it in this respect. Anyway, I look forward to a response to that and indeed to a response on the Government's part to the whole of this process. I hope the response will be positive and worth the time and effort that members put into this extensive and complicated process.
MR COLLAERY (11.14): On behalf of the Rally, I join in the general congratulatory comments about our colleague Mr Jensen, our other colleagues, the committee staff, the government servants and the Ministers who assisted with the committee's deliberations. Mr Speaker, the first comment I wish to make is that, like Mr Duby and in line with the foreshadowed comments of our colleague Mr Kaine, clearly the opposition parties feel that the budget policies and strategies are not those to which we agree.
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