Page 4751 - Week 15 - Thursday, 16 December 1993
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Mr Connolly: Say it with feeling in an MPI. Do not just read what somebody has written; say it with feeling.
Mr Cornwell: You have been pretty quiet on this one.
Mr Kaine: Yes, we have not heard much from Mr Connolly on this fraudulent Bill.
MRS CARNELL: We will just have a little chat. I have some advice for Labor members in 1994: You had better be looking over your shoulders over there. The Canberra electorate will not be terribly far behind you, because now they simply do not trust you. There is absolutely no reason to. The Canberra Times today showed the Chief Minister desperately searching on the floor of her office.
Mr Kaine: You will feel the hot breath on the backs of your necks.
Mr Lamont: I would have to bow to your experience on that one, Mr Kaine.
Mr Moore: Trevor, hold your sheet up.
MRS CARNELL: Trevor, hold up your sheet. Trevor, show him the sheet. Yes, that is it. There she is, desperately searching on the floor of the office for credibility. I think that Ms Follett really should get up off the floor and give up the search, because the credibility is gone. They have no credibility and after today's effort I think they will never get it back. This year, 1993, certainly sees the end of community consultation by Labor. They might as well forget it, because they obviously pay absolutely no attention to it. Today Labor buried it under the Electoral (Amendment) Bill.
It falls to me today, though, to measure the performance of a Minister whose performance never ceases to amaze me, and that is, of course, Mr Berry. When Mr Berry took office in June 1991 he promised a brave new world for ACT Health. Reduced waiting lists were a priority. Budget blow-outs were to be a thing of the past. The promises kept coming. Today we can examine the Minister's record on this point and, Madam Speaker, his record certainly "ain't healthy". The health budget is a moveable feast. Already it has blown out by $3m in just three months.
Mr Kaine: That was in September.
MRS CARNELL: That was in September; that is right. Imagine what it is now. That is $1m per month, on the figures that we know about, and this is a Minister who promised that budget blow-outs were a thing of the past. Last financial year we saw a blow-out of in the vicinity of $9m. Things are not improving this year. The Minister was unable to give any indication to this Assembly, or to the Estimates Committee, of where he was going to find savings, of how he was going to rein in his cost blow-outs in Health. So we probably will not see any improvement whatsoever. Mr Berry says, of course, that he is on track with his health budget - on track to another disaster. That is what the figures show.
Let us look at measures of hospital performance, such as waiting lists, Minister. You accept that waiting lists are a measure of hospital performance. We have seen a 91 per cent increase since the Minister came to office, and that was before the current VMOs dispute. That is a total of 3,418 people. You are right, Mr Kaine; that was to the end of September and, since then, we have seen virtually no elective surgery. There are 3,418 people waiting.
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