Page 3033 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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only about one-fifth of it. In the area of health, the Government's own report talks about casemix. The Government members close their ears to this because they do not want to talk about it. The Andersen report does say that, on the basis of the comparison that the report puts into effect, the total operating cost of Woden Valley Hospital would need to be reduced by $32.9m. That is the Government's own report. So, their own experts have said to them, "Introduce casemix and you can reduce the costs of your hospital by $32.9m". I know that you do not want to hear it, Mr Berry; but that is your report. We did not commission it; you did.
Let us have a look at ACTION buses. ACTION's own benchmarking study - nobody else's - identified potential annual savings of $38m.
Mr De Domenico: Per year?
MR KAINE: Yes, annual savings of $38m. Mr Berry talks about slashing and burning, and slashing budgets. Quite clearly, if you pick up the recommendations of these very significant internal reports or reports commissioned by the Government itself, you find that those reports identify where savings of very large sums of money are achievable without slashing anything. What they imply is that the Government have to manage their budget and they have to manage the functions that are covered by this expenditure, not just let the hospital run riot.
To go back to the hospitals, where Mr Berry is so keen on defending the Government's performance, the same report mentions a number of things. Of course, you could be talking about almost any aspect of the Government's budget here. If you took health off the top, it would apply to a very wide range of government activities. For example, it says that there should be established a three-year system-wide budget planning progress incorporating cost reduction initiatives to achieve benchmark cost performance. That is one thing that should be done. This happens to be talking about health; but you could apply it to education, ACTION buses or urban services. Secondly, it says that the budgets were poorly developed, including several that were based on incorrect premises, resulting in unachievable savings targets. This is talking about health. You could level the same criticism across the whole budget.
They did not include strategies for achieving savings targets. How often have we tried to find out how the Government intends to achieve its 2 per cent across-the-board budget cut, and when were they ever able to tell us how? They have never been able to tell us how. There needs to be a strategy. They talked about the 1992-93 overrun in the health system. The 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. These things indicate an absolute lack of proper management. They do not apply only to health; they apply across the board. So, when Mr Berry talks about slashing and burning, I suggest that he should merely look to good management. The Government could achieve the very objectives that we are setting without inconveniencing anybody.
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