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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2362 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

why would you not have a representative of the AMA? Why would you not have a representative of the particular patient groups that are involved? Then there are hospital patients, and in the community sector there are a number of interest groups, lobby groups, that have a very definite interest in the community care side of health. Why would you not have somebody from the ACT Hospice Palliative Care Society, because that is part of it? Why would you not have somebody from the College of Surgery? They obviously have a real interest. With regard to the union movement, we have a very strong ANF and we have HSUA, both with fairly different views on a number of things. Maybe we should have a representative of both of those groups as well. The list goes on, Mr Speaker. If you are going to have - - -

Mr Berry: This is silly.

MRS CARNELL: No, it is not silly at all. If you are going to have representatives of particular groups on a board, where do you stop, Mr Speaker, and why would you do that? If you want a representative board - - -

Mr Berry: A representative from the 250 Club is all right.

MRS CARNELL: There is not a representative of the 250 Club or of the Liberal Party either, Mr Berry. From that perspective, that is the reason there is not. We do not believe in representative boards. We believe strongly in having on those boards people who can do the job, Mr Speaker. Remember that this is a disallowable instrument. The Assembly will be able to have a look at the appointments put forward by the Government. The Government will seek expressions of interest. Again, this is a significant amount of money, and this board will be managing a very important community entity. At this stage we will be appointing four people and it is important that they have a wide breadth of experience in management, in health and in the various other things that they will need for administration. We must not end up with a situation where we have representatives of particular associations because, I promise you, within five minutes we would have 50 other associations asking why they were not given a go as well.

MR MOORE (6.38): The kernel of Mrs Carnell's argument is that we should be careful about the representation, but paragraph 15(1)(b) says:

1 person nominated by the University of Sydney continued in existence under the University of Sydney Act 1989 of New South Wales appointed in writing by the Minister ...

Mrs Carnell: That is because of the clinical school, Michael. It is a separate entity.

MR MOORE: Indeed. We have the interjection that that is the clinical school, which is a separate entity. Mr Speaker, what we have, clearly, is a specific representative for a specific concern. What we do not have here, as I see it, in a Health and Community Care Service Board, is a representative who will represent community health care. We can see quite specifically the need to ensure that community health care is represented there. It is fine for Mrs Carnell to stand up and say, "Look, this is a big business.

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