Page 3202 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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Mrs Carnell: Would you?
MR BERRY: I would be very interested in seeing it; absolutely.
Mrs Carnell: It is the block of land next-door.
MR BERRY: Do you have one for nothing, underneath the money tree down amongst the fairies in the garden?
One other issue that was raised was the VMO negotiations. Once again, the Canberra Times ignores the facts. ACT Health is already negotiating with the AMA for the new VMO contracts. We would all wish that it cost less. You can wish as much as you like on these issues; there are some realities you are going to have to deal with in an objective fashion, and that is what this Government is doing. I have made it clear from the outset that almost all of the recommendations of the Auditor-General's report have been taken up as part of the negotiations, and that is the sensible approach. You just cannot arbitrarily wish away millions and millions of dollars, and that is what the Canberra Times suggests can happen. I am not going to go into the detail of those negotiations because it would not serve any useful purpose. The sensible way is to get on with the job, and that is what we are doing in relation to VMO negotiations. I note that the AMA are treating this operation very positively because they know that they will get fair treatment. At the same time, where things need to be corrected they know that we will have to correct them.
On the issue of health centres, there was some claim that our health centres were inefficient, followed by a figure about savings that was plucked out of the air. Sell the lot, I think was basically the proposal, and save $6m. They used old information to prop up the claims. Grants Commission figures show that we have dropped from 62 per cent above expenditure in 1988-89 to 16 per cent above in 1991-92, and that trend is continuing. To give you an idea about the standard of research that went into this article, this is a beauty:
A bold policy would see the sale of all health centres (except at major centres such as Civic, Belconnen, Phillip and Kambah) ...
Kambah has been shut for two years. What a nonsense! I do not mind the Canberra Times having a bit of a dig, but they want to get their facts right. They should throw aside some of the gratuitous invective and vitriol and just get back to some of the facts. I expect that we will get another serve for having the hide to have a go at them, but I do not care. We are coming from behind, as far as the Canberra Times is concerned, and we can only win from here on.
In relation to the Health Complaints Unit, we made a commitment, and a widely accepted and well-received commitment, to establish an Independent Health Complaints Unit in the ACT. I see that the Canberra Times says that we should sell that too, or give it to New South Wales, or some other such nonsense. Of course, that would happen for nothing. Since that commitment was announced, we have signed the new Medicare agreement, which also commits all States and Territories to health consumer protection.
Mr Humphries: That is why you are doing it, is it not? It is nothing at all to do with your commitment.
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