Page 5396 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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He is saying, "I do not wish to provide any information about what is going on in Health for the life of this Assembly". That is what he is saying: "I do not wish to provide any of the information which is contained in that document".
I do not care whether we have a piece of paper headed "Financial Performance Report for the Month Ended ...", whatever it might be. I do not care if we do not have that, Mr Speaker. I can quite happily live without it. But I do demand the same level of information that the Minister himself asked for in opposition, and which any opposition anywhere in this country would expect of a government. That is all we ask.
It is made particularly difficult in this case, I also suggest, because this Minister is completely unable or unwilling to provide answers to other questions asked of him by members of this Assembly about the hospital budget.
Mr Berry: That is not true.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry says, "That is not true". Let us look at today's evidence, for example. I asked the Minister a fairly simple question: What timetable is he or the board working to in shedding staff whose shedding he has predicated already to the community - that is, 275 positions in this financial year? Well, he indicated, I think, probably something of an answer to that question: That he did not have a timetable because he was negotiating with the unions; there was no particular timetable; we would see what happens.
But the other part of the question, which he always ignores - he never answers any question with more than one part to it - was this: What number of full year equivalent staff need to be shed this year to achieve the Government's savings targets? In other words, if you make those full year equivalent staff, how many of those do you need to shed to achieve your savings targets? Obviously, if you shed 275 staff, for example, on 2 July, you achieve the equivalent of 275 full year positions for that financial year - a very large saving. On the other hand, if you shed 275 staff on 29 June, at the end of the financial year, you make virtually no saving.
The question I was asking the Minister is: What level of saving have you targeted? What number of full year equivalent positions do you have to achieve in this financial year to meet your target? That is a very simple and straightforward question. The Minister declined to answer the question.
Mr Berry: From which date? You did not put that in.
MR HUMPHRIES: Today. I asked the question today.
Mr Berry: From which date, though?
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