Page 928 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 March 1991
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Mr Connolly: It is never your fault.
Ms Follett: No, it is always someone else's.
MR KAINE: In this case, who do you think is responsible? Do you think Mr Keating's actions have nothing to do with unemployment? If you believe that, I would like you to get up and say so. It will just show how little you know about economics and the things that are driving the national economy at the moment. Our economy is no different from anybody else's, except that we are doing better, by any measure. Whether you take total unemployment, whether you take unemployment over a 12-month period, whether you take it from last month's figures to this month's figures, or whether you take youth unemployment or gross unemployment, we are doing better than your mates in Victoria and South Australia.
Incidentally, we are doing better than your Federal mates in managing our economy. Everybody else's budget is falling apart at the seams day by day; our budget is still in place. We will still achieve our budget objectives by the end of this year, while the budgets of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and the Commonwealth are coming apart at the seams. They are in absolute tatters. Our budget will be seen at the end of this year to have stood the test and the proof of time. We will achieve our budget objectives, contrary to what most other governments in Australia are doing.
So, I think the figures are good figures. To quote our esteemed Federal Treasurer, they are good numbers and they prove that we in the ACT are holding our heads high in the national arena in terms of managing unemployment and our economy.
Hospital Services Budget
MR CONNOLLY: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, given your full knowledge of the difficulties with the hospital budget in previous years, did you, when appointing the Health Board, give them any specific directions to closely oversee the hospital budget with a view to monitoring any blow-outs? If you did, will you table that direction, and, if you did not, why?
MR HUMPHRIES: The guidance for the ACT Board of Health is contained in the legislation that members of this house saw only late last year, and which those opposite assisted in passing, I recall. I have not given any specific directions to the Board of Health since that time, although I have certainly met with the Board of Health. It was constituted on 31 January this year. I met with it at one of its first meetings since that time - I think that was within the last two weeks. I certainly discussed with them
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