Page 2072 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
waste in government. In contrast to the Government's drifting budget, which completely fails to come to grips with central problems facing the ACT economy and the needs of the people, I propose a new direction; a direction which deals with the economic problems and dramatically improves the well-being of the citizens of the ACT.
Were I bringing down the ACT budget at this time I would immediately set in place a three-year program which, in constant terms, would reduce our financing requirement to $97m less than it would be under the current Follett Government. Under my three-year program we would be making savings of some $73m per annum by year three, compared with the Government's projections. At the same time, we would increase expenditure in some areas to make the ACT a more attractive place in which to live and invest, and improve the quality and availability of services. My approach would produce a growing and increasingly diverse economic base on which to generate more jobs - not just training programs, but more jobs - and government revenue without increasing the burden of taxation. Our alternative budget incorporates several policy initiatives to enhance service delivery and reduce costs. Unlike the Government's budget, where the aim is merely to survive from one year to the next, it is part of our longer-term strategy to halt the decline and enter a new era of growth and purpose.
In Health, the introduction of casemix funding, by which hospitals are funded according to the number of patients they treat, would lead to savings of $26m by the third year. More importantly, it would cut waiting lists by at least 20 per cent and virtually eliminate long waits for priority patients. Further savings would be made by sharing some resources with the New South Wales Health Department and contracting some administrative functions; expanding the use of community health centres to allow private doctors and other health professionals to operate from these facilities on a cost recovery basis; encouraging individual enterprise agreements for hospital workers and allied health professionals; streamlining the Health Department's administrative structure; and selling the Jindalee Nursing Home and building two new nursing homes, of approximately 80-bed capacity each, in partnership with the not-for-profit sector. These measures would lead to additional savings of some $10m. At the same time our health program would spend $4m on establishing a much needed paediatric unit at Calvary Hospital for non-critical patients and a long-stay convalescent unit. As part of our commitment to a principal hospital with a clinical school, we would also establish a cardio-thoracic unit.
Mr Humphries: Very much needed.
MRS CARNELL: It certainly is.
Mr Connolly: How much will that cost? What is your costing on that?
MRS CARNELL: I have yours - $1.1m. In its initial stages it will treat 300 patients annually, and it will progressively expand to 500.
Mr Connolly: It is going to cost $4m for paediatrics, but you will get cardio-thoracic for $1m!
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .