Page 717 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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Mr Connolly: On top of the $7.2m. It is $11.8m.
MR KAINE: I think you had better redo your sums, mate. Board of Health officers have reported that this $4.6m in question has resulted from two elements. One is an apparent increase of $1.1m relating to the management of changes in patient demand, and the other relates to a non-payment in 1989-90 of accounts assessed to be of the amount of $3.5m. Those accounts were not paid last year; they have to be paid this year. How much that is and what the net consequences are remain to be determined.
These matters, Mr Speaker, remain to be fully explained. They are claims that have been made by the hospitals board. I, as the Treasurer, have not yet agreed to supplementing the hospital budget, except for the two matters that I referred to earlier - the national wage case adjustments and the revenue shortfall against private patients. I can assure you, Mr Speaker, and the house that I will agree to such supplementation only on receipt of a fully documented request which comes to me with the support of the Minister. No such request has yet been made and no such request has yet been considered.
So all of this nonsense about budget blow-outs, when you boil it all down, comes down to two amounts - one for an increase because of the national wage case which the Government is obliged to pay; the other because the hospitals' expectation of revenue from private patients has not been met, and the Government is going to have to cover that minor shortfall in revenue. Neither of them represents a budget blow-out. I repeat that there will be no further supplementation of the hospitals budget unless they can fully document it, fully justify it, and fully explain why their management procedures have not satisfied the requirements of budget control.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH, EDUCATION AND THE ARTS
MR BERRY (3.10): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion of censure against the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts, notice of which I have given to you.
Leave not granted.
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