Page 734 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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course, Mr Berry forgets that, in fact, this Government has done some things about the health budget. It has been much more decisive about the health budget than he was ever able to be when he was in the same position.
In case those opposite have forgotten - which they obviously have - I will remind them that, first of all, we had to fix a $7m budget blow-out. It was a budget blow-out under Mr Berry. It was a budget blow-out caused within the first quarter of the financial year. It was a budget blow-out which was quite extraordinary and it put Mr Berry at complete odds with his then interim hospitals board of directors. That board promptly wrote to him and said that the problems incurred in their budget were serious ones, and that they wanted help. Mr Berry turned around and said, "You guys are going to get the sack. You guys do not deserve to stay where you are. We are going to take care of you people. We are going to get you out of the scene and put in, instead, a three-person triumvirate to look after health services in your place". So much for standing up for the health system. So much for standing up for proper accountability and responsible management in the health system. That was Mr Berry's response.
What is more, this Government has done other things. We have invested considerable sums of money in the establishment of new information systems in the hospital budget system. That, obviously, has not prevented the present problems occurring. That is a matter of regret; it is not a matter of saying that the Government has not done something in this field. It certainly has faced up to the problem fairly and squarely. What is more, we have strengthened the hospital board management in the ACT by extending the operation of the ACT Board of Health over not just hospital services but the whole of public health services in the ACT. That is an appropriate response to a difficult situation.
Mr Berry, of course, conveniently forgets that he himself had very clear signs that there were problems with the health budget. When we look at the 1983 auditor's report, there were clear indications there of problems in the health budget. What did Mr Berry do about that? Of course, the answer is nothing. Mr Berry also fails to mention that he himself obtained supplementation for his own Health and Community Services budget at the end of the 1988-89 financial year.
What does that spell out about the problems in the health budget? I would have said that it spells some difficulties. Mr Berry apparently did not believe that because he did not come back to this Assembly and announce - as I would have thought anyone who has said what he has said over the last few months would have announced - that there was a serious budget blow-out in health in 1988-89.
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