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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3916 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Let me deal with the second part of Mr Hird's question. By his criticism of our decision to make health a priority, Mr Berry has signalled that he will cut $80m out of the health budget if he is elected to government next year. The reason I say that is that Mr Berry suggested yesterday that his bogus figure of $80m was a wrong priority for this Government. If Mr Berry is right in his figures, which he is not, that must mean that when he gets to government he is going to take $80m out of health because it was a wrong priority. Taking $80m out of health and community care services amounts to a reduction of more than a third in the total budget. Not even I promised that in opposition.

Mr Humphries: That is saying something.

MRS CARNELL: That is certainly true. The savings that this Government has achieved - unlike Mr Berry, we have achieved them - we have reinvested in the systems, in the things we promised we would do, such as cardio-thoracic surgery. For Mr Berry to do what he indicated yesterday he was going to do and cut $80m out of Health, he would have to shut down the entire Community Care arm of Health. He would get rid of all of that. As well as that, he would have to get rid of Public Health Services and HealthPact all in one go, or he could take a different approach and he could cut 50 per cent from the budget of the Canberra Hospital. Would that not be a great move, Mr Berry?

Mr Hird: A little doozey.

MRS CARNELL: Would that not be a real doozey, as Mr Hird says? Mr Speaker, the upshot of all of this proves just how nonsensical Mr Berry's claims are these days. Not only can he not add up, or alternatively work out what is revenue and what is expenditure, but he cannot come up with one policy, one vision, one idea in health, education, employment or anywhere else. Mr Speaker, last week I mentioned in question time that those opposite still had not come up with one question about the things that they said mattered in this election. We are now into our second week, and we have not seen anything different so far. Mr Berry overran four health budgets during his time as Minister. He also managed to close 200 public hospital beds and increase waiting lists by 180 per cent. Those are the kinds of numbers that most voters understand. Even Mr Berry obviously understood those numbers.

I make one final point about a rather amusing moment. I understand that Mr Berry put out a media release last Thursday, when I was absent from the Assembly, having a go at me for not attending the Health Ministers conference. The funny thing was that I found out about it from a journalist who rang me on my mobile and said, "Where are you?". When I answered that I was in the middle of a Health Ministers meeting, the person laughed and hung up.

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