Page 5068 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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MR BERRY: I answered this question yesterday.
Mr Humphries: You did not answer it yesterday; you have never answered it.
MR BERRY: I answered this question yesterday, before it was even asked. That is how far ahead of these people I am. If Mrs Nolan had been listening - I think she was listening, although it was late in the evening - she would know that I am mindful of the Assembly's motion in relation to this matter. I gave an undertaking to the Assembly that when I receive those figures I will supply them in accordance with the resolution.
I might just go over a couple of the issues that affect this matter. I said to the Assembly in the course of debate on this issue a few days ago that the Assembly's decision was a matter of gross interference in the management of the board. Board members have expressed concern to me. They have also, as I understand it, expressed some concern to other members of the Assembly about what they deem to be gross interference in the role that is laid down in the legislation passed by this Assembly and, incidentally, supported wholeheartedly by the members of the Alliance Government.
It was quite depressing to see this marvellous turnaround on a decision they had made not a year ago. They gave the board the right to manage our health system, and now they have started to take away that right. They have decided that they want to have a say in how the board manages its budget. They want to interfere in the way the board manages its budget.
Mr Jensen: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order under standing order 118(a) or (b). I believe that the Minister is now debating the issue. In the interest of proceeding with question time, I hope that the Minister will draw his answer to a close in accordance with that standing order.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, thank you.
MR BERRY: I have finished.
MRS NOLAN: I have a supplementary question.
Mr Humphries: He has not answered the first one yet.
MRS NOLAN: That is right. The supplementary question is the second part of my question. Have you instructed your departmental officers and the Board of Health to supply them forthwith and, if not, why not?
MR BERRY: I chose to reduce the length of my answer before because after Mr Jensen's point of order there was a resounding "Hear, hear". I thought that meant that they did not want to hear any more about this issue.
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