Page 4108 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
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MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (3.33): Well, I have heard it before. I suppose that it is a repeat of all the doublespeak and invective that we get from Mrs Carnell when it comes to the board. One of the interesting things that need to be placed on the record in relation to this matter is that this is the only area of government enterprise where such interest has been focused.
Mr Moore: It is the only area that loses so much bloody money.
MR BERRY: You will have your chance to speak in a minute, Mr Moore. I would like you to pay attention to all of the facts in relation to it. First of all, this Minister failed to do nothing. I provided up-to-date quarterly figures; more than any other health service throughout Australia has provided. None of them provides those figures, and I did it voluntarily. Nobody asked me to, and in the last Assembly - - -
Mr Moore: You argued in this house against it.
Mr Humphries: You were forced to.
MR BERRY: No, wait a minute. In the last Assembly I continued to provide monthly figures. I provided monthly figures in the early part of this year, voluntarily. In consultation with the board, I suggested to the board that they provide a quarterly report. The board, in its wisdom, because they are, after all, the ones that are bound by law to manage the health system - Mr Humphries would know about that because he was responsible for the introduction of the laws - decided to produce an activity report. They produced it in the way that they decided upon and - - -
Mrs Carnell: I produced the first activity report. I know exactly what happened.
MR BERRY: The quarterly activity report. Did you produce that one?
Mrs Carnell: No, the first monthly one.
MR BERRY: The quarterly activity report. You see, Mrs Carnell now tells us that she wants to still run the board. She has forgotten that she is now a member of this Assembly and not a member of the old Board of Health. Why do you insult the Board of Health?
Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I believe that the Minister is not addressing his remarks through the Chair.
MR BERRY: Why does Mrs Carnell insult the Board of Health? Is she not prepared to let them get on with the job, or does she want to run the hospital system from this chamber? If you want to get rid of the Board of Health there are ways and means of doing that. Then you could ask me across the floor and say, "Give me this; give me that". You are running the health system; go for your life. I have a Board of Health which is required to run the hospital system by law. Please give them the credibility of being able to do it.
I want to deal also with the approach that was taken in the Estimates Committee. Not one request was made for this sort of information in the hours upon hours that Health bureaucrats were before the Estimates Committee.
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