Page 5402 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
section and fix it up, but let me know how things are going. I want to be sure that we are not going to have a further budget blow-out; so I want to know how things are going on a month-by-month basis, because the clear experience over the last 10 years is that there have been problems".
The manager would then check how well that subordinate is doing. The subordinate might say, "I have this strategy in place and I am taking this action. This month it would appear that things are not going to be sorted out, but I foresee that this action and that action will rectify it". For the manager just to leave it and say, "Okay, we have had lots of blow-outs; we have a new person doing it; we are going to leave it entirely to him, and we are not going to worry about it any more", would be an abnegation of responsibility.
It would seem that the attitude of Mr Service and the Board of Health is that they are prepared to provide those figures to their manager, namely, the Minister for Health, Mr Berry. That may well be acceptable when there is a majority government. But, in fact, there is a further level of administration in this Territory while we have a minority government. That further level, the Assembly, can order a Minister - it has ordered a Minister, and that Minister has accepted the order - to provide those figures to give an insight. In effect, what it means is that those figures are made public.
People in this Territory and in this parliament are not stupid. We can understand, when there is a minor variation to the figures that looks bad in a particular month, that they may well require an adjustment and there may well be some strategies going out to improve those. We can comprehend that. We can deal with that. I think it is fair to say that they can be reported fairly. I think it is reasonable to say that the reports on health that have gone on over the last 12 months, both while Mr Humphries was Minister and while Mr Berry has been Minister, have been consistent and have been fair.
I am sure that there have been times when people have felt that they would have liked the reports to have gone a very different way. But, if you try to take an overview, I think you will find that, by and large, there has been fair, balanced reporting of the issue of health in the ACT. It is a major election issue. It is a major issue for the people of Canberra, and the people of Canberra are entitled to know. That is the concept of open government.
Take another area where we may feel that there is some risk. Perhaps it might be Mr Connolly's Department of Urban Services. I draw it out of the hat rather than picking on it.
Mr Connolly: It is well managed.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .