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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 266 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

However, I wish to make just three points about the second appropriation bill. First of all, there will not be any estimates committee in place for dealing with this bill. That is a little unfortunate, but we acknowledge that it is unavoidable in the present circumstances. We would, of course, prefer to have estimates committees in general, but on this occasion we recognise that that is not possible.

Secondly, I think that it is important to look carefully at the provisions of this bill and contrast them with what has actually been said by the government about the appropriation of extra money, particularly in the health system. My colleague Mr Smyth will have a few more words to say about that. On Tuesday of this week, the Minister for Health, Mr Stanhope, talked about an extra $18 million being appropriated for the hospital, to be spent come Thursday when the Assembly passes this bill. He did revise that figure to $16 million when he realised that some of that money was not for the hospital. I note, in fact, that the figure is nearer to $15 million, because that is the amount that he had to exclude-

Mr Quinlan: A bit more than the six that the boy got, though.

MR HUMPHRIES: I will come to that as well. I do not think that it is more than $6 million, but I will come to that in a minute, Mr Quinlan. The amount will be more like $15 million in the first year, but it is important to note that most of this money was already provided for by the former government in terms of the things which it committed to and which were provided for in forward estimates in the statement published on 2 October which was the basis for parties to look at their commitments for the previous election.

Of the $18 million referred to in this appropriation bill, $11.5 million had actually been provided for by the previous government in that statement of 2 October. In fact, the money which is new in this appropriation bill only amounts to about $6.6 million. That is the case, Mr Quinlan. I will go through it for you, if you like. I am talking about the health budget. The sum of $2.8 million for the SACS award was provided by the previous government in that statement of 2 October. About $6 million of the $6.6 million for the nurses' EBA was provided for. The sum of $2.7 million was provided for cost pressures at the Canberra Hospital. You have added to that $6 million for the Canberra Hospital. That is the advice I have had and I believe that that is the case. I invite Mr Quinlan to indicate if I have got that wrong, but that is the advice I have received.

There is also an important point to note about the way in which that money is to be expended in the outyears. I asked for details of how the outyear spending would work. Although an extra $6 million has been provided for the Canberra Hospital at the initiative of this government, starting this financial year, it is worth noting that the $2.7 million provided by the former government, which was built into that statement of 2 October and which was to continue for each year in the outyears indefinitely, has been, on the present estimates, discontinued from the 2003-04 financial year.

It is important for the Assembly to understand what that means. It means that there will be a reduction in the general funding available to assist in meeting cost pressures at the Canberra Hospital from the 2003-04 financial year. It is true that the extra spending on health rises marginally between 2002-03 and 2003-04-by about $460,000-but that is

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