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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 244 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

particularly well, having restructured their thinking from the old days of an open purse, an open slather and going for it, and adopting a much more businesslike frame of mind. They have accepted their responsibilities to provide services to the community, targeted properly and effectively, with high-quality professionals, and within a budget. They have adopted a businesslike footing and have achieved that over the last couple of years. I think that is to their absolute credit. I do not really believe that anybody in this place can accept the responsibility or the credit for that. All credit is due to the people in there.

The big challenge for any government tackling the health portfolio is changing the mind-set in that hospital. That mind-set has been a malaise in that hospital, Mr Deputy Speaker, at least since 1978 when I first hit it when we had a couple of hospitals. The malaise is exactly the same. Ms Tucker's amendment tries to bring our thinking back to the hospital system, not the community care bit, and I would urge members to think about that.

My only other comment about this is that this is not the first time I have seen expressions of concern in the Assembly about a Minister's handling of the portfolio and the perception on the part of the Opposition that it was not happening either effectively enough or fast enough. In 1994 there was a similar exercise. I note that Mr Humphries said that you do not hold the Minister responsible for budget blow-outs. He, I am sure - I will be checking this - was vitally involved in just such an action against Mr Connolly in 1994. I found it absolutely unbelievable that he would stand up in this chamber and say those sorts of things. It was hypocritical in the extreme.

Mr Deputy Speaker, what this Assembly really wants of its Minister for Health is that he start changing the culture at the hospital. We have seen over the last 12 months absolutely no change in the hospital culture at all.

Mr Moore: That is not true. There was a major change in the last three or four weeks.

MR HARGREAVES: I have maintained my connections. Mr Deputy Speaker, I might remind the Minister that he had peripheral contact with the hospital prior to assuming the mantle of Minister for Health. On the other hand, I had 19 years of experience in it. If we want to draw swords on it we can, but I would prefer not to because, curiously enough, in this instance I am not trying to be overly negative. I am trying to draw attention to what we are not doing.

Mr Deputy Speaker, that culture needs severe action. It is a fat lot of use standing up here and saying, "I am going to do this, I am going to do that, I am going to do x, y, z, and look how we have changed it when there is a budget blow-out". I do not really care, Mr Deputy Speaker, whether it is 15 per cent a year or whether it is 12 per cent over three years. We are talking about mind-blowing figures. The hospital budget is a mind-blowing figure. If you people want to increase its being out of control by 3 per cent a year, I do not find that acceptable either. I can say with some confidence that I have spoken to people at the middle manager level of the hospital. I can say this because I was such a middle manager of the hospital for quite some time during the temporary occupation of the chief executive jobs in the hospital which made your head spin. Not one government of either colour in this place in the last 10 years has not presided over people coming and going at a rate of knots like a merry-go-round. I was hoping when

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