Page 861 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 16 June 1992
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I think that this Bill does leave many questions unanswered, as the Opposition Leader has indicated, and I am looking forward as much as he is to hearing what the Chief Minister's answers are to those problems and those questions.
MS SZUTY (8.56): I support the Chief Minister's Supply Bill and am pleased to be fulfilling another of the pledges I made to the Canberra community during the election campaign. To remind members, both my colleague Mr Moore and I made commitments to support Ms Follett as Chief Minister and to pass the Supply and Appropriation Bills once introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly. However, I wish to comment on one aspect of the Supply Bill referred to by Ms Follett in her presentation speech during the last sitting period. Ms Follett said:
... the hospitals and public and community health programs will merge to form one health program under the Department of Health.
Expenditure on health services is one of the largest items of expenditure in the ACT budget. Total moneys appropriated in 1991-92 came to $217,314,400. According to the Appropriation Bill 1991-92, the total for hospital services came to $169,839,100, and the total for public and community health came to $47,475,300. By amalgamating these figures in future under one allocation for the Department of Health, we become less informed about the moneys spent in each of these areas.
Government commitment to public and community health services is important in addressing the preventative measures that the Canberra community can take to lessen the need for hospital services in the longer term. By not separating hospital and public and community health expenditure we cannot assess the Government's emphasis on public and community health services in relation to hospital services. As the need for more moneys in hospital services grows, the obvious conclusion to be reached is that there will be less funds available for public and community health services. I urge the Government to reconsider the amalgamation of hospital and public and community health services moneys in this context in the interests of the ACT community having meaningful information about the way these moneys are spent in the ACT.
MR DE DOMENICO (8.58): Madam Speaker, I am going to be very brief. When Mr Kaine alerted the Assembly to the fact that supposedly we had been expected to vote on an appropriation of some $620m, I think that what we did not realise was that perhaps it might be a bit more than $620m. If we read the Bill closely we will see that paragraph 7(b) says that apparently we also should add on to that $620m any unexpended money from last year.
Mr Humphries: There will not be any of that.
MR DE DOMENICO: We do not know that, Mr Humphries. We have not been told a lot of things about this whole situation, so perhaps that is something else that Ms Follett should take on board. Perhaps she should let us know whether, in fact, there has been any unexpended money from last year; if so, how much, and all things like that. That is all I need to say, Madam Speaker.
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