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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 792 ..

Mr Humphries: We have a kangaroo court in front of us. That is what we know.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Whitecross has the floor.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell is the master of doublespeak. Her explanation of her reckless misleading of this Assembly is a classic example of that. On the one hand she says, "It is not my fault. I could not recklessly mislead because it was not my fault. The cost model was wrong, and how was I to know that the cost model was wrong?".

Mrs Carnell: Well, that is true.

MR WHITECROSS: That is her argument. Of course, she blames her Health advisers for that. Her Health advisers knew enough to say, "That is not how we put together the budget". Her own advisers knew that there were deficiencies in the cost model and did not use it as the basis for the budget. Regardless of that, Mr Speaker, she then turns around and says, "But we will make the savings". On the one hand she says, "We will not make the savings, but it is someone else's fault", and then on the other hand she says, "But we will make the savings".

Mrs Carnell: Next year.

MR WHITECROSS: The Auditor-General does not say that she will make the savings, Mr Speaker. The Auditor-General says that she might make the savings. The reality is that it was not the Auditor-General who said that there was a problem with the cost model; it was her own department who told the Auditor-General that they did not believe the cost model. So Mrs Carnell cannot hide behind that in her remarks.

In this debate there have been some classic pieces of misleading, Mr Speaker, in the contributions of some of Mrs Carnell's colleagues. Mrs Carnell's colleagues have sought to put words into the Auditor-General's mouth. For instance, Mr De Domenico said that the Auditor-General had found that they could expect to make savings in future years. What the Auditor-General did was report that management in the health system expected to make savings in future years. The Auditor-General did not say that they were going to make savings in future years.

Mr Kaine said that the Auditor-General had found that the implementation of the contract arrangements was negotiated by two previous governments and that the current Government had expressed the view that all new contracts would be sessional wherever. Mr Kaine tried to say that the Auditor-General had found that, but the Auditor-General was quoting the Department of Health as saying that the Government did not expect to make these savings. Mr Speaker, both Mr De Domenico and Mr Kaine have quoted from this report; but they have quoted comments from the Department of Health, not comments which the Auditor-General was endorsing.

This is where I want to leave this debate, Mr Speaker. Mrs Carnell said that the issue of improving the efficiency of the Department of Health, of getting the health budget under control and of delivering services through the health system to the Canberra community were important issues and that she hoped that she would get the support of this Assembly

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