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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2309 ..

Mr Moore: Yes.

MS CARNELL: I think we are still the only state or territory in Australia where that is the case.

Mr Berry: That was the case before you came to office.

MS CARNELL: That means that it has not got worse.

Opposition members: Oh!

MS CARNELL: No, seriously. Mr Berry has made comments that somehow the situation has got significantly worse over the last few years.

Mr Berry: I didn't say that.

MR SPEAKER: Order! I do not want a debate across the chamber. We have a long night before us.

MS CARNELL: Okay. Mr Speaker, I agree that our health system has been through many ups and downs since self-government. Mr Berry made that point earlier. Health is always very volatile; there is no doubt about that. But the suggestion that this budget, a budget which over the next four years puts over $65 million of new money into areas such as mental health and disability services, indicates that the health minister is not doing his job-a health minister who has just got healthy cities accreditation for the first time and a health minister who has been out there at the coalface, walking around wards and doing the hard yards-is seriously silly, Mr Speaker. Anyone who opposes the health line of the budget has to say that they could do better.

Mr Berry: No worries.

MS CARNELL: The fact is that Mr Berry did not do better. I understand that I should not respond to interjections, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Do not respond to interjections, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: I accept that. I think that we have done as well as we can. Yes, there will be times in health that are tough, but this budget and previous budgets have put more money into health, more money into disability services, more money into mental health and more money into people who need it. I have to say that Mr Moore has done something that I could not achieve. He has managed to move the focus on preventative care to community-based care, and that matters.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister's time has expired. I thank the Chief Minister for finishing on time.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care): I seek leave to respond very briefly to some of the issues that were raised by Ms Tucker.

Leave granted.

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