Page 2522 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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. Were introduced three months into the financial year, ignoring significant staffing overruns already incurred at the time the budget was announced;
. The 1992-93 overrun was not well understood and could not be fully accounted for. Therefore, it was virtually impossible to identify the problems that the 1993-94 budget had to overcome.
In the light of these comments, it will be interesting for the committee to see later in the year exactly what savings have occurred.
In relation to health waiting lists, this year the committee has recommended that, in future, as much information as possible about the number of people waiting for elective surgery and the nature and severity of their medical conditions be provided. This will enable the committee to readily compare information about our own waiting lists with what occurs in other jurisdictions in Australia. In fact, I heard Mr Connolly very recently calling for the same information to be provided to him as Minister and to the community so that we do have a better understanding of what is going on in relation to waiting lists.
I turn to the Health Promotion Fund. The committee has made the same recommendation this year as was made last year. Recommendation 35 states:
. the Government ensure funding for the Health Promotion Fund is at least 5 percent of the revenue raised by the Tobacco Franchise Fee.
The committee considered the Government's response to last year's recommendation; but it still believes that the issue needs further consideration by the Government. The committee has gone further this year in recommending that the Government review the rationale for the establishment of the Health Promotion Fund. After all, the committee believes that health promotion is exactly what the fund should be used for.
I would now like to mention briefly a number of recommendations which refer to areas of government activity which have not previously come under consideration by estimates committees. These are the diesel fuel off-road exemption scheme, audit reports, ACTION patronage, motor vehicle testing, the introduction of wheeled garbage bins, the proposed shared facilities at Nicholls Primary and Preschool, and the numeracy and literacy initiative. I am sure that other members of the committee will comment on these issues during the course of the debate.
The committee has also drawn attention to the information and responses given to it by the Commissioner for Revenue during questioning on the diesel fuel off-road exemption scheme. I am sure that all members of the committee regretted the need to do this. Nevertheless, the majority of the committee believed that some comment by the committee was warranted. The committee commented in the report in a number of places, and I would like to quote some excerpts. In the second sentence of paragraph 4.43 we said:
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