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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 7 Hansard (19 October) . . Page.. 1866 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

as I said to the Canberra Times, he has always been under contract in his previous public service jobs under both Liberal and Labor governments. We were very keen to have him on a contract here as well, as he was. Unfortunately, the current legislation did not allow for that, which is the reason we are attempting to change the legislation.

MS FOLLETT: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I would ask again the question I asked in the Estimates Committee and that Ms Elizabeth Jackson asked on the radio this morning: If and when Mr Walker does have a contract, will that contract be made public? If not, why not?

MRS CARNELL: I think that is actually a second question, so I assume that it is out of order; but I am very happy to answer it anyway because I already have in the Estimates Committee. The reality is that we are very willing and very happy to make the draft contracts available, that is, the outlines of the contracts that will be in place between Ministers and chief executive officers and chief executive officers and executive officers; but we will not be making available the actual intricacies of contracts entered into between chief executives and Ministers. What we will be making available, though, as I said in the Estimates Committee, is the outline of the basis of the performance we will be expecting from our departments, and each Minister will be making those statements clear.

MR MOORE: My question is to the Chief Minister as Minister for Health, and I would like to begin by quoting Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, in New Zealand. I need to give a little bit of background to the question, Mr Speaker. Ian Powell, in a speech to the Australian Medical Association Industrial Officers Conference a couple of weeks ago, said of New Zealand:

The National government made several extraordinarily ambitious claims over the goals that its "health reforms" would achieve - politicians would be removed from decision-making, management would be downsized and improved, patient choice would be enhanced, dollars would follow patients, decision-making would be more transparent and visible, services would be increased, managers would become more autonomous and independent -

it sounds rather familiar, does it not, Mr Speaker? -

under-utilised facilities would be utilised, and the new system would be more accountable.

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