Page 3868 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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HOSPITAL BED NUMBERS - SELECT COMMITTEE
Appointment
Debate resumed.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (5.00): I move:
Omit "Government's, substitute "Board of Health's".
The effect of the amendment is to ensure that this motion at least makes some sense. As the Minister clearly stated, it is not the Government's proposed reduction in bed numbers; it is the Board of Health's reduction. If the amendment is agreed to, this will still be a political stunt, as was made abundantly clear this morning; but at least it will be a political stunt that uses accurate terminology, which is some improvement. If you are going to muck around on a stunt, you may as well get your basics right. I commend the amendment to members if they want to try to make this motion have some sense.
MR HUMPHRIES (5.01): I oppose the amendment because I consider that it indicates quite falsely that the Government has no connection with these bed closures. Any Minister worth his salt - I do not know whether Mr Berry puts himself in that category - would certainly be consulting with the Board of Health about the nature of the cuts being proposed. In fact, the Government would have a very extensive role in considering whether cuts being made by the Board of Health were commensurate with the necessity for cuts in the health area and, indeed, whether they were in line with government policy.
This Government talks a lot about its policy generally and particularly with respect to health. One of its policies seems to be that there should be an accessible and affordable hospital system. It seems to me that the Government would have a considerable amount to say on issues such as bed closures, waiting lists and the like. I have no doubt whatsoever that if there were problems, if unacceptable steps were taken by the Board of Health, the Minister would be stepping in. In fact, the Minister indicated that that was generally the policy of the Government when he spoke to the Estimates Committee last week.
The Minister said, correctly, that the Government would step in to prevent steps being taken by the Board of Health that the Government considered would be deleterious to the general state of health services in the ACT. Those were not the words he used; they paraphrase the words he used. If that is the case, he cannot divorce himself from the policies of the board. He cannot pretend that the board has no connection with the Government's policies. Of course it does. The board operates within the parameters of government policy.
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