Page 1789 - Week 06 - Thursday, 19 May 1994
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When Mr Berry became Minister for Health again in June 1991 he was facing the prospect of enormous change in order to rein in the problems that the health system was facing, but he had before him the blueprint to do it. He had the Hirth report, he had the Enfield report, and he had two Treasury reports by that stage detailing the nature of the problems that had been experienced by the health budget. He had in front of him the information to be able to deal with what Mr Connolly has called the culture of inaction. I think he called it the culture of inaction within the health system - the idea that you can simply experience a budget overrun and then ask for more money from the Treasury and they give it to you. That was the situation faced by Mr Berry when he took office.
In the ensuing three years we have had a fairly free hand on the part of the Labor Party to deal with the ACT's health problems, three years in which to be able to face up to these problems and take action; yet, by his own admission, the present Minister says that the culture is still there. It has not changed. Five years of self-government appear to have made very little difference to the culture which exists among health administrators in this Territory.
Ms Follett: We are working on it. That is more than you did.
MR HUMPHRIES: "We are working on it", says the Chief Minister. With respect, I think five years is a long time to be working on it. It is fair to ask: When are we likely to see an end product for the work? That is not an unreasonable question to ask. We have had two successive governments experience health budget overruns. I point out, by the way, that the Alliance Government was the only government this Territory has ever had which has delivered a budget on target. That was the 1989-90 budget.
Ms Follett: Oh, no.
MR HUMPHRIES: It came in under budget that year, 1989-90. You check your records, Chief Minister.
Ms Follett: The 1989-90 budget was mine.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it was not. You had part of the year, but most of the year was administered by Mr Kaine.
Ms Follett: The 1990-91 one was a deficit.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, it was. I freely admit that. But I say again that every budget since then has been a deficit budget. That is the point. There has been only one budget on target. However, that is water under the bridge, shall we say, as long as we can see some developments which change and improve the situation.
Let me deal with one of the matters that the Chief Minister raised earlier today. She made reference to the fact that the Alliance Government faced a problem with its health budget and failed month after month - I think they were the words that the Chief Minister used - to acknowledge that there was a budget blow-out. I have checked the Hansard records. The Labor Party asked a question about blow-outs in the health budget for the first time on 19 February. Six days later I announced a review into the
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