Page 4111 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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The fact is that he was not. The fact is that Mr Berry said absolutely unequivocally that his tenure as Minister for Health should be measured by his achievement in areas like hospital waiting lists, the ACT Ambulance Service and scrutinisation of the hospital redevelopment budget. That is what he said. By his own standard Mr Berry has to concede that his own hospital system has declined and is in serious trouble under his stewardship.
Madam Speaker, I was intrigued by the comment about the $3m budget blow-out. Mr Berry does not use that term "blow-out" very much any more, but it was a term he bandied around a great deal before the 1991 change of government. Both Mr Berry and the Treasurer, Ms Follett, were quick to point out today that you cannot use part-year figures in assessing whether or not a budget is in trouble; you have to wait for the final end-of-year outcome. Ms Follett nods. My mind wanders back to 1991. It wanders back to the occasion when Mr Berry loudly screamed up hill and down dale that the hospital budget had blown out - he does not use those words these days - by $17m. Do you recall that assertion, Mr Berry?
Mr Berry: No. I said that you did not know what was going on. I remember that assertion. That was true.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure that Ms Follett recalls it - $17m. It was the figure that was used extensively in June 1991 when the Government fell - that the ACT Alliance Government had allowed the budget to blow out by $17m. Was that an end-of-year figure?
Ms Follett: It was, by the end of the year. Yes, it was.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it was not the end-of-year figure. The end-of-year figure was $6m.
Ms Follett: No, it was not; $6m unapproved, as I recall.
MR HUMPHRIES: The records show that. We have heard that unapproved expenditure is only what you have to look at. Is that not the case, Madam Treasurer. What is the test here? Can we have some consistency? What is the test? Is unapproved expenditure all right or is it not? Is approved expenditure part of a blow-out or is it not? You people are making the rules up as you go along. You do not want to admit to the fact that you have been not one iota more successful in controlling budget expenditure than any previous government in this Territory. When you talked about a $17m blow-out in 1990-91 you were talking about a part-year figure. Irrespective of what it turned out to be at the end of the year, it was a part-year figure when it was first used, was it not? That, Madam Speaker, is another test on which I would invite members of this community to condemn this Government. It is your own test; it is the test that you fail.
I am distressed to hear that Mr Berry thinks that the system has performed well up until now - that is, until the doctors strike has come along. Those are fairly innocuous words, but I read into those words something very sinister. What I hear in Mr Berry's words is that we have had some problems but the doctors dispute is going to really throw our health system and our health budget right out of kilter. Boy, oh boy, when we get to the end of the year, when we have
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