Page 3130 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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MR BERRY: It is with some pain that I recall how the Residents Rally members of the Alliance Government walked away from Royal Canberra Hospital very early in the piece and allowed it to close. They facilitated its closure by the Alliance Government and facilitated the fast-tracking of its closure. I suspect that the Residents Rally - in fact, you could nearly bet on it - will turn around again. They turn from one course to another at such speed that it is a wonder that they are not too dizzy to enter this chamber.
We have had some difficulties with the provision of health services in the Territory through the changes of government and the changes of focus, but I think it most important that I mention the difficulties in financial management within the hospital system. It is notable that Mr Humphries did not make much mention of that. It is most notable that Mr Kaine has had a lapse of memory about the financial management in the hospital system. Had he a better memory, he would have recalled that when Labor was thrown out of office we left with the incoming government a report which pointed out difficulties in financial management in the hospital system.
It was more than a year later before the Alliance Government was prompted into any course of action on the subject. In fact, the situation had become much worse because of inaction by the Alliance Government. That, of course, has left Labor, in turn, a legacy with which it will have to deal when it comes to the provision of hospital services in the Territory. That is one that we will not run away from, but it has made it more difficult.
We are fortunate in this country that we have a universal health care system, established by the Federal Labor Government, in the form of Medicare. I am sure that if we did not have a universal health care system in this country our health system would not be in as good a condition as it is, subject of course to the frailties of the system which have developed in recent years through the instability of government in the Territory and the changes in focus. We would not have had as good a system as is available to territorians without Medicare. It is a great joy to me to see the endurance of that system and, of course, the endurance of the Hawke Labor Government, which has it as one of the feathers in its cap.
In relation to matters raised by the Auditor-General on the report's financial statements and the financial management problems of the Board of Health, which, as I pointed out, we inherited from the former Government, they are now being closely monitored and processes have been put in train to address the issues. One of the things that have happened is that there has been an appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, which has been widely publicised.
Mr Kaine: Which was set in train by the Alliance Government, I might add.
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