Page 4114 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
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MR MOORE (3.49): Madam Speaker, I will now move an amendment which will be circulated in my name. I hand it over. I move:
Paragraph (1), omit "24 hours", substitute "7 days".
The amendment recognises the difficulty that Mr Berry indicates that he has. Politically, he wants to say that to direct the Board of Health is not necessary because it is appropriate that this Assembly direct the Government. How Mr Berry goes about that is his business. If he wants to do it by directing the Board of Health, that is his business. He can certainly, and no doubt will, put the blame, as he calls it, directly on Mrs Carnell and me. He indicated that he would do that. I am quite proud to say that this is not the first time that I have chosen to give a similar direction, because I believe that the Assembly has the right to find out what is going on in Health and to find out the figures, as it did at this time last year. He is in the business, Madam Speaker, of saying, "If it were not for Mr Moore's vote, this would not have gone through". That is fine.
I am quite happy to say to the board that we gave Mr Berry opportunity after opportunity to give us the figures, right up to yesterday when I asked a question without notice saying, "Will you give us the figures monthly?". My supplementary question was, "If you will not, will you at least give them to us for the September quarter?". You had opportunity after opportunity to do so and you have said that you are not going to give us those figures. The reality is, Madam Speaker, that members of the Assembly and members of the public are entitled to know what is going on in Health. We are entitled to know what those figures are, so that we can project; so that we can compare them with the December quarter figures and those for last year, do our own projections and make our own interpretations.
It is very refreshing that Mr Berry has said to us quite frankly that basically there is a problem and that the projections indicate that there will be a blow-out; that therefore the Board of Health is going to have to take appropriate action to ensure that that projection does not continue. I think that is a reasonable interpretation of what he said. The much more worrying thing, Madam Speaker, is that Mr Berry has indicated that the only way he can get these figures is to now go back and direct the Board of Health. That is an admission that Mr Berry does not have the figures. That is a great worry. It is appropriate that this motion be directed at the Government. Now that he has seven days, providing this amendment is passed, Madam Speaker, it may well be that Mr Berry finds out from his advisers that he will not have to recall the Board of Health at all; that in fact he does have these figures. I would hope that he has actually had a look at them and therefore will be able to deal with them.
Madam Speaker, this is a quite sensible motion. It is appropriate, as it was last year, that members, and, if necessary, the public, are made awareof the exact situation, because it is the biggest budget item and because we know that there are problems there. We want to monitor those problems and we want to monitor that they are being taken care of.
Mr Berry: You will know in December. You will know in the December figures.
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