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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2311 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

In Setting the agenda I committed myself to making sure that the funding was done on the basis of evidence. As I have said at the hospital, if people can come up with evidence to show that it is not 30 per cent overfunded, of course we will readjust our budget in the future. But this government has put a larger lump sum into this budget than has ever been put into health. We are just talking about the $62.9 million on its own, plus there is a whole lot of other money; it must come close to $100 million.

Ms Tucker raised the issue of the call centre. We would not have the money for the call centre in our budget. It does not come from our budget. It comes from an agreement with the federal government; so, if we did not put that money into the call centre, we would not have the money for anything else. That having been said, you suggested that there was no process. In fact, there was. You may have forgotten that this is one of the key elements of Setting the agenda. We went through that process with Setting the agenda and I am now implementing that.

I appreciate your positive comments there. I appreciate the constructive approach you have taken to the health budget and I am trying to meet the challenges that you have put in front of us in your statements. I believe that I am doing it better than any other health minister has done, not just in here but also in Australia. The reason I can do it is that we can live within our means and we now have the wherewithal to do it.

We have a very tiny surplus projected for this budget. It could be much bigger if we were not putting so much money into health. But in next year's budget, instead of projecting a much bigger surplus, I hope that we will be addressing some of the issues that Ms Tucker raised.

Question put:

That the proposed expenditure be agreed to.

The Assembly voted-

Ayes, 9  	Noes, 8

Ms Carnell  	Mr Berry
Mr Cornwell  	Mr Corbell
Mr Hird  	Mr Hargreaves
Mr Humphries  	Mr Osborne
Mr Kaine  	Mr Quinlan
Mr Moore  	Mr Rugendyke
Mr Smyth  	Mr Stanhope
Mr Stefaniak  	Mr Wood
Ms Tucker






Question so resolved in the affirmative.


Proposed expenditure agreed to.





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