Page 1217 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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like $2.5m in a full year and saving about $100,000 in administrative costs each year. That is very considerable.
I observe that this Bill has bipartisan support, but I acknowledge also that the Bill has not met with the universal endorsement of others outside this chamber. We have had representations from the health insurance industry in particular, which have argued for an alternative to the levy which does not simply impost people with private health insurance. The industry has made suggestions about alternatives. So while it appears that there might not be total consensus on a health insurance levy, there does appear to be a general agreement that the current system needs to be changed and placed on a sounder financial basis.
It is important to note that the savings generated by the new scheme will help the ACT tackle the $100m funding shortfall that will occur when special funding arrangements with the Commonwealth expire as early as the middle of next year. That has always been the first priority for government and it will continue to be so with the implementation of this legislation. In a small way it also helps send the message to the Commonwealth Government that the ACT is serious in its bid to tackle the significant overfunding identified by the Commonwealth Grants Commission.
I note Mr Berry's comments about a difference of opinion indicating disaster and confusion on the part of the Government. As I said earlier today in answer to a question, I welcome a spirit of debate inside the Government. Those of us who hear the Opposition tell us that there is no debate and no difference of view in its ranks smirk with some mirth at this ridiculous suggestion. I welcome the debate that has preceded the introduction of this legislation.
Mr Berry, in particular, was critical of the Alliance Government for not having acted sooner to introduce this legislation and put this levy in place. The fact is that when he made the same attempt last year to bring in this scheme he made a right mess of it. He said in this place - on previous occasions, if not in the debate today - that it was the previous Government's intention to have the ambulance levy begin on 1 January. One does not need to be brilliant to work out that when he left office on 5 December last year no legislation was in place and that, even if he had intended to bring in the Bill on 5 December, there was no way that an ambulance scheme such as we are bringing in today could possibly have been in place in the Territory by 1 January.
The failure to meet that deadline also raises another interesting question. Mr Berry said that there was confusion on the part of the Government and that this confusion spilled over to the community and harmed it. The reality is that, when I took office as Minister for Health,
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