Page 2526 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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For my part, I have sat through a number of Estimates Committee hearings over a number of years, and there are some aspects of the process that trouble me. The first of those is this business of being accountable. The chairperson has commented on one incident, where there was, in my view, an absolute lack of accountability, where an official, for whatever reasons, declined to answer questions that were put to him. But that was compounded by the fact that the Minister was sitting next to that official and said, "Hear, hear!". How can a government come here and claim to be accountable when it not only refuses to be accountable during a hearing of an estimates committee but also encourages its officials not to be accountable? I think that is a matter of great concern that this Assembly needs to pay attention to. If the members of the Government and the officials working for it are not accountable in the forum of the Estimates Committee, there is no place and there is no time at which they can be made accountable. I think that the community out there would be interested in that. I think that the community ought to have a very great interest in it.
To get to the appropriations that we have been looking at in the Estimates Committee over recent weeks, I would like to note some of my concerns about them in general terms. I am sure that other members will want to bring up specific points that emerge from the Estimates Committee report. The first thing that troubles me is this question of the Government making predictions that simply do not eventuate, and it comes back to the question of accountability. How can you hold a government accountable for statements that it makes where nothing happens and it seems that it cannot be held accountable? I quote from the budget speech for the year 1992-93, two years ago. The Chief Minister, in talking about the social and economic environment, said, "The unemployment rate is also starting to fall". At the time, I wrote in my usual red ink on the margin, "Optimistic?". I would like the Chief Minister to explain to us where in the two years since she made that statement unemployment has fallen. We get these false predictions that people build their hopes on and which do not eventuate.
On a minor level, I note that in the same budget speech, for 1992-93, the Chief Minister said, amongst other things, "In this budget, we will commence work on the hospice". It took nearly two years before that actually happened. So these kinds of statements appear in budget papers and they never eventuate. I will move on to the budget speech for 1993-94, one year ago.
Members interjected.
MR KAINE: The Minister wants to talk now. I wonder whether he wants to get up and be accountable when it is his turn. I am sure that he will be very silent then.
I come to the budget speech for 1993-94. This is one that will be dear to the Minister's heart. The Chief Minister said in her budget speech, "As part of this process" - she was talking about efficiencies in the health organisation - "savings of $3m will be made in the health budget during 1993-94". We know that not only were there no $3m savings but the budget blew out. That happens year after year. We never get the Government
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