Page 5406 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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It is all right for Mr Moore to say, "Oh, this is open government". It is not open government; this is ridiculous. You just cannot interfere at this level. It is an issue of letting the board get on with the job. If the health budget blows out, I accept the responsibility for that. Mr Humphries had to cop the responsibility for that; but, most importantly, what he had to cop was the responsibility for not knowing about it. I have made sure that I will know what is happening in the health budget. If anything goes wrong with it, I will make sure that I cop the responsibility for it; but I will know about it.
Mr Humphries: You sure will. We can guarantee that. That is a promise.
MR BERRY: That is right, but I will know about it. I will know from one day to the next. You did not even know that something was wrong; that was your difficulty. The Liberals did not know that the financial arrangements in the hospital system were off the rails, until Labor pointed it out to them. Then they conveniently forgot that they had been given the information just after they took office in 1989 and did nothing about it. That is what the hue and cry was about.
Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. Mr Berry has continuously made that allegation and continuously been asked to withdraw it on the basis that it is not true, given what he himself said to the Estimates Committee. I ask him to withdraw the allegation for the last time.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries seems a bit peeved by the way it is going. I will say to Mr Humphries that I withdraw what I said previously, so that he can settle down and relax. Mr Humphries received some information which flowed over from the Labor Government. He did nothing, I think, until the Enfield report and, of course, that is why the health budget fell apart. We have set a tight budget frame - there is no question about that - and the job for the board is difficult, but we are keeping our finger on the pulse in relation to the board's performance. That is something the former Government did not do.
I cannot guarantee that nothing will go wrong, because Health has a long history of not being able to deliver in all respects; but I can say to you this much: The board have given me an undertaking that they will live within budget. I know that they are working at the very best rate that they can muster, and I am sure that they will do everything to deliver their promise. At the same time I will say that we will know what is going on with the health budget, whereas the former Government did not.
I go back to the request by the chairman of the board. I ask for no sympathy from members opposite for me. As I have said, the buck stops with me and I do not expect sympathy. If I were getting some, I would think there was
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