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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 26 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

We believe strongly that it was the right approach in relation to people who continue to criticise public servants in a way that suggests that they are not acting appropriately, and in fact may even, shall we say, be acting in a criminal fashion - for instance, are in the back pockets of developers. Interestingly, Mr Speaker, I would like to say that there are a number of those opposite who agree with us.

MRS LITTLEWOOD: My question is to Mrs Carnell in her capacity as Minister for Health and Community Care. I refer to comments made by Mr Berry in the media earlier this month in which he claimed that the health budget would be overspent by $16m this financial year. Minister, is this claim wrong and, if so, what is the actual state of the health finances so far this year?

MRS CARNELL: I thank the member for her first question in this place. Shall we call it the inaugural question, or possibly the maiden question? On consecutive Sundays this month Mr Berry has issued two media releases about the health budget. There are occasions when he can concentrate on his portfolio areas, although not for very long. Looking at what he has said in these press releases, maybe it is a good thing he does not concentrate on them for very long. Yet again, he was completely and utterly wrong on both occasions. To use a cricketing expression, Mr Berry has made a pair of golden ducks in his only little dabbles into health this year. If you think back on the life of this Assembly, when you hear ridiculous claims about health, they inevitably come from Mr Berry. We have comments about the closure of the birthing centre, phantom operations - do you remember them? - and cancer patients paying high costs for drugs. On his form, you would not have expected anything different, and he certainly would have been dropped from the team.

Earlier this month, Mr Berry made an extremely serious claim about this year's health budget, based upon, supposedly, the November financial management report released this month. He said that the report "shows that the Territory's health budget will be overspent by $15.9 million by the end of the financial year - in stark contrast to Kate Carnell's claim that the budget is on track". Mr Berry, what the report actually shows is the complete opposite. Perhaps Mr Berry had not bothered to read it, Mr Speaker; probably, unfortunately, he did read it and did not have a clue what it said.

The operating statement for the Department of Health and Community Care for the first five months of the year is actually tracking $4.3m better than expected, Mr Berry, not $16m in the hole, as you claimed. It is really tragic when you have members of this place, even after supporting the Financial Management Bill, who still have no capacity whatsoever to understand the figures. That improvement in our budget is across the board. It is in all parts of Health - in the central office, in the Canberra Hospital, and in Community Care. So we are tracking better right across Health. These figures were all in the report, right in front of Mr Berry's nose, but obviously he did not understand what they meant.

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