Page 1662 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
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So what is the situation now? We have had the people on the other side of the house flipping through pieces of paper to find a misplaced comma or a "t" that was not crossed; some minute administrative error. They even misquote a letter that I am supposed to have written to the Minister. They cannot even quote that right.
Mr Berry: Would you like to rewrite this like Gary did?
MR KAINE: No, I do not want to rewrite it. I meant what I said and I gave him a specific answer to a specific request. It was a fair response and I make no apologies for it. You search for anything at all that you can say that is nasty, that is unpleasant, and particularly directed at people's characters - not so much at what they do or how they do it. You just have to try to destroy somebody's character. Well, you have not succeeded.
What we have at the moment is a hospital restructuring program which is going ahead and which will produce a better hospital system. We have a restructuring of the health administration that you left behind, a health administration that was so out of tune with reality and what was needed that we set about restructuring it. There is the Minister who is restructuring it. He has done away with that top-heavy department that you had and did nothing about, and which was totally unnecessary. There was a consumption of public money and resources that could not be justified on any standard. That department has been largely done away with. It has been amalgamated into a larger ministry. There is the Minister who is wroughting this change.
Mr Berry: Rorting; that is right. That is a good one.
MR KAINE: That is w-r-o-u-g-h-t. He has wrought this change. We have a Minister who has confronted the absolute administrative shambles that you left for him, Mr Berry; you having been so indecisive as to not even know how to change your mind. The Minister has gone about restructuring the administration and producing a much leaner and more efficient administration. He is setting about a major restructuring of the hospital system. He is addressing the major issues.
Mr Wood: Is he doing a good job?
MR KAINE: Yes, he is. He is doing a good job. That is why all of this specious argument that you people put forward is so humorous. You are desperate to grasp at any straw that will dent the armour of this Government. Well, you cannot do it; you have not done it; you will not do it. You had better get used to the fact that the Minister is here to stay. He will continue to do the job that he has done very well for 18 months. If you cannot find better arguments to support a censure motion than you have come up with today, then you can forget ever being anything but an ineffective Opposition. That is where you deserve to be and that is where you will stay.
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