Page 2651 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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That the board have executive powers based in legislation, be established as a body corporate, and be granted responsibility for day-to-day management of the hospitals.
That the board comprise a maximum of eleven members all with voting rights.
That board members be appointed on the basis of their personal skills, for a period of up to three years.
Then he deals with the composition of the board and says:
That the board's membership include six selected by the Minister, with expertise in areas covering business and financial management, corporate planning, law, the trade union movement, and education -
Mr Berry: You have managed to say that.
MR HUMPHRIES: If you let me finish, Minister, you might reach the point of the debate, and you will if you bother to listen. Following the word "education", he has these words:
(following nominations by the Vice-Chancellor, Australian National University), and three staff nominees (one medical, one nurse and one other) elected by a system acceptable to the Electoral Office. The Chief Executive Officer (Royal Canberra Hospital and Woden Valley Hospital), and the Chairman, Calvary Hospital Board of Management should be directors 'ex-officio'.
If the Minister would care to look carefully at the motion that has been put before the house, the Minister will see that this motion does not defend the present composition of the interim board of directors. It does not say that this particular model, used in precisely the same form as at the present time, should be maintained. We say rather that "a board of management, as recommended by the Kearney report, is the most appropriate form of hospital administration". This is an admission that this model, including representation from the trade union movement, is appropriate for the ACT's hospital system. We are calling for that. The Liberal Party is calling for trade union representation on the hospital board of management.
What it is not calling for - and what you seem to be saying you want for our hospital system - is removal of the powers of an independent board to deal with day-to-day management issues in our hospitals. You want to take away the board system altogether, if reports are any indication, and put in its place an advisory committee or some other model which does not put the day-to-day management of a hospital system into the hands of a hospital board. That, I think, is irresponsible.
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