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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2332 ..

Mrs Carnell: The department does not do it any more; this body does.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says that the department will not be doing it. What will they be doing? They will just disappear, will they?

Mrs Carnell: There is a split.

MR BERRY: Of course it is a split. There is a layer of administration in the department, a layer of administration in the Health and Community Care Service and a layer of administration which flows from the Health and Community Care Service Board. Mr Speaker, I will go on with some more of the functions:

(f) to facilitate and provide training and education in the provision of health and community care service;

(g) to collaborate in, and encourage research into, public health and community care;

(h) to make available to the public reports, information and advice on public health ...

(j) to give residents of the surrounding region such health and community care services as may be necessary or desirable; and

(k) to provide such other health and community care services as the Minister approves.

That is a clear layer of administration. Next we will go to the Health and Community Care Service Board. Of course this is not a layer of administration either, according to Mrs Carnell. No wonder people are sceptical about every word that Mrs Carnell utters. The functions and powers of the board are:

Subject to subsection (2), the Board shall control the affairs of the Service.

The board has the responsibility to deal with all of those functions which are in turn affairs of the service. It is another artificial layer of administration which is being put in place and will cost tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars in all.

Mrs Carnell: How?

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says, "How?". I seem to recall that when the board which was put in place by Mr Humphries was eventually dispensed with a lot of money was saved. If one tallies up all of the support that goes into these particular functions which are set up under this legislation, one can see that it is a lot of bureaucratic energy, it is a lot of support from departments and it is a lot of support from the Health and Community Care Service. You do not get that for nothing. It adds up to possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the level which is applied.

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