Page 2083 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The Minister has conceded that. He has thrown away, this year alone, two years of the proposed savings that he said he would get from his redeveloped hospital system.
Mr Kaine: That is because of what you left behind when you went, mate.
MR BERRY: And Mr Kaine says that it is because of what I left behind. What I left behind for the Minister was good advice, but he did not take it. If he had taken that advice and got off his butt and had a bit of a look at what was going on in the hospital system, we would not have had the difficulties that we have today.
The inaction of the Minister is what has caused the massive blow-out in our hospitals budget. That is why our hospital system is in crisis. It is because of this Minister and because of the Chief Minister's inability to intervene and do something about the way the Minister is performing. He is a bad performer. He did badly in education and he is doing even worse in health. He is managing a hospital system that turns away the sick. That is what this Minister is managing, and the Chief Minister, of course, sits back there with a smug look on his face, because he is not prepared to do anything about it.
Mr Kaine: It is because you are wrong about everything, as usual.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister interjects again because he is touchy on this issue. He is touchy on this issue because he knows that from day one he has taken little interest in the hospital system. He has let Mr Humphries play with it as if it were a child's play toy, and what we have ended up with is massive destruction. And the people who are paying for this in the end are the people of the Australian Capital Territory, while the Ministers and government members opposite sit there smugly and pretend that nothing is wrong. Something is wrong and it is about time you woke up to it, because Labor is not going to let you forget it.
I have to say, Mr Speaker, that that is not the only area in health that has suffered from this Government's inaction. Ambulance services are another area. It is ironic that it was Mr Humphries who, when he was an opposition member, rightly raised concerns about the Ambulance Service in the Australian Capital Territory. But, from that point when Mr Humphries took office, he did nothing. And pretty soon we had an ambulance service that was very deep in crisis and was not delivering services. I have no doubt that people have suffered at the hand of this Minister because of his inability to deal with the Ambulance Service. It was a simple job, with not many people involved and not a big budget. It was a fairly simple job, but far too complex for this Minister. It was
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .