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concerned about it. But it was something that was persevered with under that first Labor Government, and it has been extended since - in 1993, as one of the Commonwealth’s initiatives, with a pilot program at Calvary; in 1994, with an extension to Woden. It has been a very successful program.

I could unkindly make the comment that during the period that I was Health Minister, and I think Mr Berry would endorse this, and during the period that he was Health Minister, whenever a Labor Health Minister would mention that we had early discharge programs and would point to the fact that we had a fall in length of stay, Mrs Carnell would bob up and would be carrying on, saying, “You are throwing sick people out of hospital early. It is this hopeless Third World health system”. Shock, horror; scuttle for a front page. Of course, we will not carry on in such an irresponsible fashion. This is a commendable program. It is a program that goes back for some years. It is a program entirely of the Labor Government.

It is striking that there is absolutely nothing new in this statement. There is a statement that it is funded through to June of this year. One wonders where that funding came from. Mrs Carnell said, “We will continue our commitment to this”. Again, we do not know whether the ACT Government will continue its commitment to this, because the budget has been pushed back until September. We still have Mrs Carnell's rhetoric about slashing $30m from the health budget. We again look forward to seeing whether the rhetoric is matched by reality. As I say, whenever you are short of business, which is obviously going to be fairly often, and you want to come into this place and make a ministerial statement extolling the virtues of Labor Government programs, we will be happy to accommodate you.

I endorse all the good things that you say about these programs because they are good programs. Innovative and committed health professionals have been behind these programs. They are health professionals with a certain degree of courage, because it is difficult, when you first introduce these programs, to get across to people that you are trying to act in their interests and that when you suggest that they go home you are not trying to throw them out of hospital early. It must have been hard for people managing these programs, when Mrs Carnell as opposition health spokesperson was constantly screaming about the Government throwing sick people out of hospital early, when, in fact, what they were doing, as Mrs Carnell very properly acknowledges here, was running very innovative and sensible programs to ensure continuity between hospital and home; to look quite properly and legitimately at saving dollars; and to look quite properly and legitimately at ensuring that our acute health care facilities in our public hospitals were utilised as effectively as possible and ensuring that they were available for those who needed them most. It is a very good program - a program of two Labor governments, in fact - and Mr Kaine might reflect on Mrs Carnell's fine statement in his upcoming remarks.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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