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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2334 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

matters in Health. This board and these two extra layers of administration will not change a thing but will cost the Territory a whole heap of money and divert a whole heap of energy within the health system into support for these boards - money which would be better directed towards the provision of health services at the pointy end. Mr Speaker, the reason for having self-government is to have elected representatives accountable to the people of the ACT. Nowhere has that occurred more than in Health, and there are no reasons to expect that that will change.

When Mr Humphries was the beleaguered Health Minister in the ACT, he put in place a board to try to distance himself from his problems with Health. It did not work then. Rightly, Mr Humphries was held responsible for the impact of his policies on health services in the ACT. That board stayed in place, attempting to do its job in the face of a concerted attack from those opposite after Labor came to office. We all recall that.

Mrs Carnell: You paid no attention to it.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell was a member of that board. She learnt a few tricks by her participation on that board. When she went into politics, what did she turn her attention to? She turned it to attacking the board and the health system. That is why members of that board, in turn, gave it away. Influential, respected business people in this Territory knew that the board was not working and resigned.

Mrs Carnell: It was not working, because the Minister would not pay attention to them, would not talk to them and would not even turn up at meetings.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says in the next breath when she comes forward with this proposal that this is going to have an emphasis on management. What better emphasis on management could there have been than the previous board? The board was a group of people who were appointed for their various areas of expertise and were unable to change anything. The board put in place by Mr Humphries believed that the demand for financial figures made by the person who is now Chief Minister was an unreasonable request. That board was not left alone. The next board will not be left alone. Mrs Carnell says that I did not listen to them. That is because boards do not run the health system here and do not take responsibility for the health system here; the Minister does. You are going to have to have the courage to stand up and take responsibility for what you do.

Mr Speaker, the board believed that the Assembly was interfering in the operation of the board. That was true. It was at that point that, of course, the standard for future accountability was set. When the then chairman of the board resigned and others joined him was the time when the new standard was set, and there is no going back from that. There is no point going back from that, because we have proved with the passage of those years that the board process and additional statutory authorities, which existed in the past, are relics of the past and are no longer appropriate for the management of health in the Australian Capital Territory. The then chairman resigned because he recognised too that the board's time had passed.

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