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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2012 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Ultimately, this Chief Minister was found guilty of misleading the house over the management of the health budget. This whole fiasco has been a long, sad and sorry story. It is true that Mrs Carnell has reduced waiting lists.

Mr Moore: I do not think she was found guilty of misleading this house.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker - - -

MR SPEAKER: I am listening, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Mr Moore, Mrs Carnell did mislead the house, and she was censured for it. There have been other opportunities that have been missed, I think, Mr Moore.

So, this was the beginning of the fiasco - $14.2m grew into $22.3m in the first year; another $40m in the following year; and by the end of this year we will be at around $80m extra spent in health and built into the health budget for future generations to pay for. Then we consider the promise by Mrs Carnell to cut $30m from the health budget - to make $30m worth of savings in the health budget - when she was approaching election to government. This was another one of those promises from Mrs Carnell, an "any old promise that you can possibly make, provided that you win" promise. It soon evaporated, and soon the health budget began to grow and grow.

Mrs Carnell has had the worst budget management record of any Health Minister. Mrs Carnell, despite her promises to save $30m, has built another $80m into health budgets. The credibility gap is now $110m. Then Mrs Carnell comes into the Estimates Committee process and says that, by the end of this year, she will have saved $27m.

Mrs Carnell: We will, and we showed you where.

MR BERRY: You had better pick up your budget papers and have another look. In the 1996-97 budget papers, at page 116, there is a $38.6m gap - extra money built into the health budget. You are the one who said that you would take $38m out, and it has just become more and more expensive all along the way. So, Mrs Carnell, your credibility on health management is zero. Mr Speaker, anybody can buy themselves out of trouble if they just keep throwing money at it, and that is what Mrs Carnell has done. This year's budget has been augmented again by, I think, $14.6m.

The cardio-thoracic surgery issue has been raised in the Estimates Committee report. There were questions raised about the sharing of resources for cardio-thoracic patients with the coming new private hospital for the ACT. Mrs Carnell made an earlier faux pas by drawing attention to the 200 jobs in the private hospital. That drew attention to the fact that there is going to be business taken from the other hospitals to ensure employment for those 200 people, if and when that happens.

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