Page 673 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
question of how you measure achievement. What are the appropriate standards? I have two. The first of those is what we have actually done in the way of announcement or actual decision and implementation. I want to turn to each of the three areas for which I am responsible and look first of all at hospitals. I inherited a hospital system in a state of financial chaos - utter and absolute chaos. It was characterised most dominantly by a $7m cost blow out in the 1989-90 financial year - $7m. My predecessor, Mr Berry, went to water when he had to face that problem. He did absolutely nothing, even though he had some time between the announcement of that difficulty and the change of government in which to address it. Nothing happened. The fact is that he backed down in the face of pressure from health unions.
This Government was different. Today I can say proudly in this Assembly that we have turned around the financial situation of our hospitals. The 1989-90 budget is back on track; it will be a balanced budget at the end of the year. That, in itself, is one achievement of which this Government can be proud and about which it can hold its head high. If that were the only thing this Government had achieved, that would be enough to justify the last 100 days of this Administration.
In the area of hospitals, we have also improved the morale of our hospital system by agreeing to reappoint or to appoint a hospital board which is in the mould of what was recommended by Dr Brendan Kearney in his review. In doing that, we have added great stability and certainty to the future of our hospital system and, in particular, to the hospital which faces special problems in meeting the financial demands of the coming months.
In the area of education, the Alliance Government has moved to address the issues of closer participation by citizens of the Territory in the running of our school system. We have taken the previous Government's plan for what was then called "extended school self-management" and what is now called "school based management", and strengthened that principle. We have provided for an element of consultation, which did not occur under the previous Government and which is now occurring, about how that might be implemented. It is a system which will give schools and school boards, parents, teachers and students more say in the way in which their schools are run at their level. We are reinforcing and strengthening that by establishing a schools council, a body similar to the hospitals board, which will provide an overview of education in the Territory and give the community, as a whole, greater access to education decision-making.
Finally, in the area of arts, I want to mention that this Government has been able to free up a long stagnant process whereby some $2m in grants to the Australian National Capital Artists for the creation of artists' spaces has been released. We are now able to proceed with the grant
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .