Page 2595 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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person, an agreeable human being, but there is a time when personalities are not the paramount issue. The paramount issue is the public good, the public interest. We are seeing incremental policies in the health area; we saw an incremental budget in relation to which you let out a little every few weeks, tentatively and carefully. Now we are getting a drip-feed health policy system, in relation to which the Minister drip-feeds us on each and every bit of his processes.
We are not sure sometimes whether Mr Bissett is talking for the Minister or whether the Minister is talking for himself or whether the Minister is talking for Mr Bissett. It is all very, very confusing, and it is not appropriate. But I do hasten to say that the Rally exemplifies the pyramid by simply referring to Mr Withers' correspondence with the HEF, which is not edifying, and by referring to the fact that Mr Bissett may well be there in the pyramid, but you may need, Minister, a very competent, eminent Australian organiser. I am not suggesting - - -
Mr Berry: Like Bob Ansett?
MR COLLAERY: I am not suggesting Kate Lundy or Bob Ansett. I must say that was an example - - -
Mr Berry: I heard you say it on the television last night, Bernard.
MR COLLAERY: Yes, I saw it, too. But the fact is that we need someone with proven managerial skills.
Mr Kaine: What about Bob Hawke?
MR COLLAERY: I am sure that we could find the right guards to ensure that if Mr Hawke were admitted to the ACT hospital system he would not be fallen upon. This is partly a Federal legacy, and we recognise that, but, Minister, when are you going to take the initiatives required of you to deal with this long-running public sore?
The matter of public importance today is to stress again to you, Minister, that you must bite the bullet; you must make some decisions. One of the first decisions you could make is about assuring the Canberra people that there will be a competent board of management. The Rally is not going to comment on the composition of the interim board as it stands now or the future composition of any board you may appoint, but we are totally opposed to the appointment of advisory committees.
They belong in post-war reconstruction periods, and they come a little out of the Labor mythology of the Hawke Government, where you get some of your mates around you and intersperse them with some other good, eminent Australians who are going to fall patsy for that idea, regrettably. You will get a fairly compliant group, but you will find that that will boomerang on you, Minister. Those people
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