Page 2461 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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Mr Kaine: You told me that you are going to give me the Government's position, but you have not said you will answer the question.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Kaine, please do not interrupt.
MR BERRY: The fact is that there was a report to me in a confidential document from the interim board of the Woden Valley and Royal Canberra Hospitals. It suggested that there was a blow-out in the hospitals' budget. I think the rest of the history was reported in my answer to Mr Duby but, for the sake of clarity, I will go through it again.
Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I am not interested in Mr Duby's question. I just asked three specific questions. I would like the Minister to answer them. I do not care what he said about Mr Duby's question. That is irrelevant.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you. Do you have those particular questions listed, Mr Berry?
Mr Kaine: If he does not, I will repeat them, Mr Speaker; I have them.
MR BERRY: Thanks. I think you could repeat them.
MR SPEAKER: Would you please repeat the question, Mr Kaine.
MR KAINE: I will repeat the questions. First of all, do you deny that there was a $2.5m cost overrun in your budget in the first three months of this year? It is an explicit question - nothing to do with Mr Duby's question. The second one is: would you not agree that that is a case of gross mismanagement of your budget, that you can overrun by two and a half million dollars in the first three months of a fiscal year? Thirdly, I alluded to your budget in which you proposed to make two sets of cuts in your budget expenditure. I asked: given that five months of the fiscal year have now elapsed, when do you intend to put those cuts into effect? They are three specific questions, and I would like specific answers to them.
MR BERRY: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As I said, the issue that was raised by the Leader of the Opposition has some relevance to my answer to Mr Duby in relation to what was described as a blow-out of $10m in the hospital budget. As I said previously, I had a confidential letter from the interim board which, by the look of it, has fallen off the back of a truck in several places. Nevertheless, it is a confidential letter from the board to me. There was a reported overrun in the budget.
As a result of the reported overrun, the Government took action to send in a team to examine the issue. As I mentioned in my answer to Mr Duby, in which I referred to the interim report, the $10m figure at least is not
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