Page 4406 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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I think we are going to see continuing difficulties in the health area and that, I believe, for every citizen of Canberra is a matter of some concern. I am not denying that the Government is probably just as concerned about it as we are; but I think that the massive cut to the health budget, and it was a massive cut, while the Government may have thought it necessary, is one that is going to have a major impact on the community before the year is out and, indeed, in subsequent years until we can pick up the damage that has been done.
The police budget, I believe, demonstrated a certain amount of indecision on the Government's part. Again, I do not dispute the right of the Government to make a cut in the order of magnitude that they did in the police budget. I had said publicly that I did not think that the police function ought to be quarantined from budget decisions; but it would seem, now that the dust has settled and it has all been sorted out, that had the Government been more specific about how it expected the $1.2m cut to be put into effect the Police Association would not have reacted the way they did and they would have simply got on with the job. There was a difficulty precipitated there, again, I believe, by virtue of a lack of consultation with the involved people as to what was expected.
Mr Jensen has talked about the Bruce Stadium. I think there is continuing concern about the fact that we do not have a good contract with the current occupants of the Bruce Stadium. It has yet to be resolved. We have a contract that really is not a contract. Of course, the inevitable question always is: Where did the $1m go and when are we going to get it?
One other matter, Mr Speaker, is the question of the Social Policy Branch, which is specifically mentioned in the report. I think that it is a matter of some concern when a Social Policy Branch becomes an implementing branch. The Government has transferred functions such as youth operations and Streetlink and other operational-type functions into what is essentially and ought to be a policy branch. The staff and line functions do not mix.
It is inappropriate, in my view, to build up an organisation like this. It becomes, if you are not careful, an empire in its own right. The fact that it is a policy branch carrying out some of these functions means that it begins to second guess other people out there whose job it is to implement policy to duplicate what they are doing and it becomes wasteful. I think the number of positions in this policy branch on which the Estimates Committee had some comment to make perhaps demonstrates the fact that it already sees itself as something larger than life and bigger than a policy branch.
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