Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 1503 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

separations in Health - do you remember the little lesson on separations last week, colleagues? - with the amount of money we put in, and the budget balanced in the final year of Labor. From a history of dreadful under Mr Humphries - the first and worst - through those years of Labor we gradually took the financial arrangements in Health to a better position where we matched the amount of money with the amount of output. That is good management. There is no other measure. We matched the money with the throughput. That was great management. That is the history of it.

Then the best manager in the world came along - the master, if you like, of cheap theatrics, Mrs Carnell! The best manager turned up on the scene, and how she was going to manage health better!

Mrs Carnell: I will.

MR BERRY: She says, "I will". Well, we all say, "When, when?". This was going to be the year, we were told. It was all going to be fixed up; there would be no business rules. "I will anticipate everything that is going to happen in the health budget. Nothing can go wrong. Do not worry about it", we were told. So, $14.2m later, we have somebody who could beat Gary Humphries - Mrs Carnell, the expert! Mrs Carnell has taken us to our present position. There has been a history of problems in health budgets. They gradually improved under Labor, but they have returned to a complete collapse again.

Mr Whitecross: Full circle.

MR BERRY: My colleague says, "Full circle", and that is correct - back to the worst again. Mr Humphries, bad; Mrs Carnell, worse. You ought to be embarrassed and you ought not to sit there quietly because you are so embarrassed about the situation that you have yourself in.

The Estimates Committee looked at this process and discovered, to their credit, that the Department of Health and Community Care budget was overambitious, having regard to existing and projected activity in Woden Valley Hospital. It was clear that Mrs Carnell knew exactly what was going on in the hospital system and did nothing about it. She encouraged the budget to blow out and she allowed it to blow out. This is all Mrs Carnell's doing.

Now we get to this situation: You asked, "How are we going to cover this up?". This is where you bring in the team of media advisers. You say, "We are in trouble here, and I am looking bad. This is the worst result for Health ever. What am I going to do about it? You have to think of something new; that is what you have to do". So what do you come up with? This phoney Appropriation Bill. You wheel out the phoney Appropriation Bill and say, "This is something new for the Assembly". While you are in the process of trying to sell the phoney Appropriation Bill, you also reflect on previous Assembly decisions. This Assembly endorsed the Audit Act which gave you the power to act in these matters, the same as it has given power to previous Treasurers to deal with this issue. Why do you have to reflect on a vote of this Assembly?

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .