Page 3875 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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That raises the issue of the worth of the Estimates Committee. Why on earth do we bother going through that ritual if we are going to have another committee to inquire into what the Estimates Committee inquires into?
Mr Kaine: No; the Estimates Committee is looking at money.
MR BERRY: The Estimates Committee looked at issues such as bed numbers too. I can remember attempts by members of that committee to grill me. It was a public relations exercise which failed. It was a silly business. It was early days for the Board of Health in managing the Government's budget. Their strategy is wide open. It was put on the table, and it was plain to see that they are getting on with the job.
What will happen now is that this committee will interfere with the process. It will politicise the board's work even more. I know that there is some concern amongst board members about the politicisation of their management of budgets, and that is something the Government will have to deal with. This silly political exercise will make it more difficult for the board to get on with its job. It will make it more difficult to get on with the consultation that is required to ensure a smooth transition to more efficient services.
I know that the Liberals would not be concerned too much about that because they do not have much of an understanding of the need for consultation or its worth. Nevertheless, that is a matter of concern to me, and this committee will interfere with the process the Government has supported in relation to the board's advancement of health services in the ACT.
One other thing that needs to be covered in this debate is how the secretariat will cope with the provision of resources for the committee. My understanding is that the secretariat is flat strap when it comes to the provision of resources for the various committees. It is a matter for the Speaker to attend to inside the borders that have been set for his budget, and the sorts of resources that will be required, I suggest, are significant.
This committee is a race to the line. It is a short course, and I suggest a short course to disaster, because it will not produce the sorts of results that ought to be produced if we want to look at these things objectively. This is a political campaign; no more than that.
This proposal fails on all scores. It fails because it attempts to duplicate all the things that we all say in this place should be ruled out. It attempts to duplicate the work of another committee of this Assembly, a committee which I suspect now will not report on hospitals and bed numbers. Does this mean that now they will not say a word about bed numbers in our hospital system?
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