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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 1553 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

There are a number of other points, Mr Speaker, that I would like to make briefly. Mr Berry should talk! He had a four-times budget blow-out - which is a record for this Assembly - back in 1989. They were not there very long, because, I think, in about late November or early December the Alliance Government took over. Today Mr Humphries produced a Canberra Times article, dated 16 November 1989, showing that in one quarter of 1989 good old Wayne was well on the way to a $10m budget blow-out. It was about $2.5m, I think, for those three months. So, if anyone should be throwing stones, it certainly should not be Mr Berry, who holds the Assembly record for blown health budgets.

Mr Whitecross talked about cracks in the window getting larger if you do not do anything about them.

Mr De Domenico: He used about 4,000 cliches.

MR STEFANIAK: He did, indeed. In relation to cracks in the window, the Chief Minister has indicated in some detail how to ensure that any sort of crack, if there is one, simply does not get any larger. One way to do something about a crack in the window, Mr Whitecross, is simply not to just sit there and let it continue. You take steps to rectify the situation, as this Chief Minister and Minister for Health has done. Quite clearly, with a crack in a window, Mr Speaker, if you put a little indentation at the base of that crack, that stops the window from cracking further. It is taking action. Just like stopping a crack in the window of a motor vehicle, what the Chief Minister has done here and what she is proposing is to take action in relation to this matter.

Mr Speaker, there is one other point that I would like to make about this Appropriation Bill. Mr Berry, Mr Whitecross and, no doubt, other speakers for the Opposition have talked and will talk about problems, mismanagement and such like. They can hardly talk, with their record. I think that in only one instance did they get a health budget right. Let us also look at a couple of things in terms of some of the extra expenses here. One of the main reasons why we have hospitals, Mr Speaker, is to actually treat people. There has been an increase in throughput under this Government and under this Minister for Health - some 1,000 extra people, I understand, in a six-month period. There has been a 7 per cent increase in hospital admissions. Yes, that has cost extra money - some $3.2m - but more patients have been treated.

There have been distinct improvements in the system. Today, on radio, the Chief Minister and Minister for Health indicated, as did Colleen Duff, I understand, that there would be a new enterprise bargaining agreement which has considerable further potential to ensure that our hospital system gets better. So, I think people should be well aware of the improvements made in the health system under this Minister for Health. To listen to the codswallop and gobbledegook coming from the Opposition is absolutely amazing. Their twisting of things, especially as Mr Berry has done, is quite incredible. Really, as someone who has brought in four budgets in Health, all of which needed supplementation, he can hardly talk.

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