Page 3981 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 16 December 1992
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went into Consolidated Revenue. There is $10m in a fund which is operating to subsidise third-party premiums and we then said that $10m was to be used for a road safety trust fund for worthwhile projects. That fund was established earlier this year when this Assembly passed legislation to give the fund a lawful base.
This morning the first payments, of some $70,000-odd, were made to the Child Accident Prevention Foundation in the ACT. That money will allow them to reduce the hire cost of the child safety capsules from the present $40 for six months to $20. That is a significant reduction in cost to families with infants, which will significantly benefit this community. There is also an amount of money available to the foundation to run ongoing education programs in the community about the need for child restraints. That is another worthwhile project.
The most pleasing thing, Madam Speaker, is that those payments represent but the first instalment of a lot of good works that will be coming from that trust. The trust is administering some $10m. That money was paid over at the beginning of this year. One does not need to be a mathematical genius to realise that the $70,000 that was paid out this morning is but a fraction of the interest that has already been accumulated on that money, without starting to eat into the capital. I am confident that we can look forward to a lot of projects which would have been battling to secure government funding, given the difficult situation that the ACT will find itself in for some years, but which now will be able to benefit from this substantial sum of money that was secured to the community through this Government's negotiations.
Medicare Agreement
MR DE DOMENICO: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Deputy Chief Minister in his capacity as Minister for Health. As the Minister is aware, or should be aware, pool B of the bonus pool under the revised Medicare agreement will reward improvements in public provision of occupied bed days by public patients. How does the Minister plan to take advantage of this money, taking into account that ACT Health has never favoured privately insured patients and that the ACT has the lowest number of private hospital beds per 1,000 in Australia?
MR BERRY: I think I should really say that I answered this question yesterday.
Mrs Carnell: No, you did not answer it yesterday.
Mr Humphries: You did not.
MR BERRY: I think I did, if you had been listening. What I have said to these deaf people opposite is that a Medicare agreement is currently being negotiated - - -
Mr De Domenico: You could not have answered it yesterday because I did not ask it yesterday.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please! Let Mr Berry answer the question.
MR BERRY: If you know so much about it, why do you ask the question?
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