Page 169 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 April 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, I am sure that Mr Berry will soon answer the question.
MR BERRY: The odour of hypocrisy permeates the atmosphere.
Mr Kaine: The hypocrisy is coming from that side of the house.
Mr Humphries: Madam Speaker, I think the word "hypocrisy" has in the past been ruled to be unparliamentary. I would ask you to ask Mr Berry to withdraw it.
MR BERRY: I do not know about the smell of it, though; that has never been ruled out.
Mr Humphries: The smell is as bad as the word.
MADAM SPEAKER: I will allow Mr Berry to finish his answer. I will seek advice on the use of that word and come back to it next session, Mr Humphries.
MR BERRY: The Liberals continue to complain about and thrash around over health budget management. They are wasting their time. There is a program in place which is delivering the goods. The monthly reports come regularly to the Minister.
Mr Humphries: But not to us.
MR BERRY: I continue to release them for public scrutiny without any requirement to do so.
Mr Humphries: Like blood out of a stone, yes.
MR BERRY: They are released for public scrutiny and, as members of the public, the Liberals are free to scrutinise them.
Mr Kaine: That is if we can get a copy.
MR BERRY: You can always get a copy.
Mr Humphries: Yes, at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
Mr Kaine: You have refused pretty strenuously up until now to provide them.
MR BERRY: They complain that they do not get them soon enough. When it comes to secrets, the Liberals were the best at it but they could not cover up the health budget blow-out. The Treasurer did not want to talk about it, his Health Minister did not want to talk about it, and eventually it blew up underneath them. Anyway, monthly reports are well in place. There are new accounting procedures in place. We have a very strong set of business rules under which arrangements for health funding are organised - something that was unprecedented in the period of the Liberal Government. The accounting system Fiscal, which the then Chief Minister said was his, is being put in place by the Labor Party. They did not get it to work. We have strengthened top level management and made Health accountable. They are all in stark contrast to what happened under the Liberal Party. I think, Madam Speaker, that it is about time they gave up. There is nothing in it for them.
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