Page 3635 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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I ask the Minister: In light of this $14m increase in funding, why, at the end of August - just two months into the new financial year - has the recurrent health budget already blown out by some $371,000? How can the Minister explain this overexpenditure, particularly when the latest available information from Woden Valley Hospital shows that in the first two months of this financial year there have been 347, or 4 per cent, fewer admissions than for the same period in 1993? Can Mr Connolly advise how, under Labor, you can treat fewer patients, spend more money, and still get a blow-out?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, the Opposition are at it again. They have more front than Mark Foys, as the Prime Minister once said. They come into this place and they quibble. They keep making these allegations that I mislead the Assembly. Mr Humphries, this morning, brazenly said, "The Industry Commission says that you reduced petrol by 1c. That is what the Industry Commission says". I quote to him the figures of more than 3c. Is there any apology? No. For anything the Opposition says, near enough is good enough; slapdash. Mrs Carnell quibbles and carps about health. What is her solution? Smile a lot and rip $30m out of the health system. Madam Speaker, I have tried grinning at Woden Valley Hospital and it does not produce a single additional bed. This Labor Government, Madam Speaker, has not tried slashing $30m from the health system to see whether that will produce additional beds. I am sure, Madam Speaker, that it will not.
We are criticised by Mrs Carnell for spending more money on health. Health gets more expensive day by day, State by State, everywhere, and around Australia governments are trying to put in more resources. "Shock, horror! Our system is collapsing", says Mrs Carnell, on the basis of some interim July-August running figures. Shock, horror; we are some $300,000 over projection for the first two months of the financial year on a budget, Madam Speaker, of some $267m. Yes, you will need to keep an eye on these figures. We need to work on them. The Alliance - Mr Kaine, Mr Humphries, the old discredited crew - did not have a clue what was going on. Under the Alliance, they did not know - members who were here at the time will recall this - as of June, July or August what the outcome had been for the previous financial year. "Wait until the budget", was Mr Kaine's - - -
Mr Kaine: Neither do you, Minister.
MR CONNOLLY: No; we do. We know that, as at the end of August, we do have that degree of overspend - $300,000 on $270m. It is not something that one leaps up and down and boasts about, saying, "Wacky-do, wacky-do; we are spending a little more than we should"; but it indicates that you can then start to control it. Again, Mrs Carnell gloatingly says, "Gee, things are terrible. The world is about to collapse because we are some 300 admissions down on the equivalent period of last year".
Mrs Carnell: You are $300,000 over and 300 down.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, on a budget of $270m, which we will address. These things are seasonal. These things vary from season to season. One patient can be in for a small matter; one patient can be in for a long matter. That is what we are trying to get a better
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