Page 735 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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Mr Berry had over $15m worth of supplementation to the 1988-89 Health and Community Services budget. Did "Blow-out" Berry come back to this Assembly and stand near the seat that Mr Stefaniak now occupies and say, "Members of the Assembly, we have experienced a budget blow-out"? No, he did not. He sat there silent. He said nothing. Now he comes here and has the gall to say that supplementation of a health budget amounts to a blow-out. My response to that is, and I will quote somebody else who is in this place - - -
Mr Kaine: A simple word, "humbug".
MR HUMPHRIES: Exactly, Mr Chief Minister: "humbug". The words of Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, as she then was, about the claims of a crisis in the health budget in 1989 were "just humbug", and that is what Mr Berry's statements have been and still are today.
Mr Berry says that there has been mismanagement of the health budget. He has not shown where it is or how it has occurred, but he says that there has been mismanagement. He says that the blow-out proves it and, therefore, the Minister should either resign or be sacked. The question has to be asked: When Mr Berry faced the same problem in 1989 why did he not resign? Why did he not ask his Chief Minister to sack him?
Mr Kaine: He did get sacked, though.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, Mr Chief Minister, he did get sacked; he got sacked by the people of the ACT through the actions of this Alliance Government on 5 December 1989, and he wonders why.
The other interesting question, of course, that springs to mind in the present context is: Why did not the Follett Government - which was so anxious to avoid any application of the label "crisis" or "blow-out" to its budget problems in 1989 - initiate a Public Accounts Committee inquiry headed by Mr Kaine, the then Leader of the Opposition? Why did it not seek an inquiry at that stage? Obviously it was not anxious to have the matters that were before it at that stage thrown open to the cold hard light of day. Mr Berry, now in opposition, is rather more anxious to have this process opened out, blown up and exaggerated in whatever way is possible. I want to quote from Mr Berry on the 14th - - -
Mr Kaine: He has his head buried in his papers now. He is not being so chirpy now.
MR HUMPHRIES: He certainly is not. His embarrassment is radiating across the chamber. I can feel the redness of his face warming my hands at this very moment.
Mr Berry: I left the blowtorch on your belly.
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