Page 4117 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Madam Speaker, it is obviously quite true that the Board of Health was uncomfortable with the regime of having to put those figures on the table; but that regime was one initiated by Mr Berry's own comments, by the tone he himself set when he came into office, because he said clearly to this Assembly that the level of accountability in Health was not good enough and it had to rise. He himself said that he would find out on a monthly basis, unlike his predecessor, what was going on in the health budget. With that level of information coming to the Minister, the question has to be asked: Why cannot the rest of the Assembly know as well? Why should the financing of Health be a secret? Why should it not be available to people in the ACT? The answer is that there is no reason.
I do not believe that it is necessary for the Minister to direct the board to make the information available. I am quite certain that, if the Minister has been as good as his word on this question, the information, in exactly the form that we wanted, will already be sitting on his desk - right there in the middle of his desk. It will be there. If he wants to grandstand and pretend that he has to get the board to deliver the information, I think that is unfortunate. I think we all know that, in fact, the board has already provided the information in a form which the Minister must have. If he is a Minister who is worth his salt, he must have the information on his desk. Does the Minister not know what the expansion revenue categories have been in the preceding quarter or preceding month? Does he not know what the actual year-to-date figures have been in each category? Does he know that? He does not say anything, but we assume that he knows. Does he know what the full year projections are? Do you know that, Minister?
Mr Berry: The board runs the health system.
MR HUMPHRIES: But do you know?
Mr Berry: The board runs the health system under Gary Humphries's law.
MR HUMPHRIES: He says that the board knows. The point he made, Madam Speaker - - -
Mr Berry: My parliamentary accountability will require me to go to the board and say, "Parliament wants you to do x, y and z".
MR HUMPHRIES: I will need an extension if you keep carrying on, Mr Berry. The point he made in opposition, Madam Speaker, was that it was not enough for the board to know; the Minister had to know as well. That was the point Mr Berry kept making - that the Minister ought to know. Remember the point you kept making in the early part of 1991 - "You could not even be bothered to find out", you kept saying. In other words, "You, Minister", that was me, "do not know". Well, now I am asking you: Do you know? If you do know, if the information is there in this form, why can you not tell us?
Mr Berry: The board will tell you, because that is their responsibility. I will make it their responsibility.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .