Page 1523 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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discuss the allocation of moneys from the health promotion fund, and I have seen a copy of the letter that was sent out by Mr Berry in that regard.
Mr Kaine: That was sporting of him.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes. It came indirectly, Mr Chief Minister, not directly, to my office. I am concerned that it may have created some misunderstandings about the nature of the health promotion fund. The fund was established to support health promotion in general, and in particular to replace tobacco sponsorships in the ACT. The Government decided to establish a non-statutory ACT health promotion fund advisory committee to advise me, as Minister for Health, on the allocation of moneys from the fund. I expect to be able to announce the membership of the committee in the near future, and an urgent priority of the committee will be to draft guidelines for health promotion grants.
Mr Berry: Not one of the sporting people was consulted.
MR HUMPHRIES: I did not hear that, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: I will tell you again then. Not one of the sporting people was consulted.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry, please desist.
MR HUMPHRIES: Because we have not reached a stage at which any guidelines have been developed, Mr Berry. The fund is not, as Mr Berry appears to think, principally for providing grants to sporting groups. Certainly some funds may be provided to sports and other groups, but this would be in the form of sponsorships entered into on a commercial basis with regard to the health promotion value that a particular sponsorship can offer. The guidelines will therefore be health, rather than sport, directed. It is important to remember that this program is first and foremost a health program.
Mr Berry's apparent reason for calling the meeting was the lack of reference to the health promotion fund in the legislative program. I think he has failed to appreciate that the health promotion fund committee is to be appointed on a non-statutory basis and therefore no legislation is required. This will reduce considerably the amount of the fund that will be needed to cover the administrative, accommodation and publicity costs of the fund. Under the suggestion put forward by Mr Berry, a statutory committee would certainly absorb more of the funds available for the purpose of health promotion and would reduce those available for other, more important things.
I do appreciate Mr Berry's bipartisan support, I think, for the concept of the health promotion fund. So, while criticising Mr Hyde, I welcome Dr Jekyll's support for the establishment of the fund, and I hope that that initiative, inherited from the Follett Government, will be pursued actively by both parties without unnecessary hairsplitting.
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