Page 2694 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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MS GALLAGHER: You have got it, have you? I was going to say that it is getting a bit much if you have got it. I have not even seen that one yet. That will go out for extensive community consultation. It is not a new thing. The dental program already operates on restricted eligibility and co-payments. But this is about exploring the issue and looking at ways to generate further revenue for the health system. If it does not work, if it does not fly, then we will not go ahead with it. We may go ahead with access restriction but not co-payments, or it could be a mix of both. I cannot tell you; I cannot predict that work. But it is to be done this year. I will finish there. I said I would not take my full second 10 minutes. I thank members for their contribution.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.11—Department of Territory and Municipal Services, $257,486,000 (net cost of outputs), $100,359,000 (capital injection) and $945,000 (payments on behalf of the Territory), totalling $358,790,000.
Sitting suspended from 6.30 to 8.00 pm.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (8.00): The government’s appropriation of $358,790,000 for 2006-07 for the Department of the Territory and Municipal Services—DTMS, or even notified as TAMS—should bring horror upon this place because of what we know about how this money is going to be spent once it is appropriated. During estimates hearings the TAMS minister, Mr Hargreaves, did not display the confidence that he even knew how this funding was to be expended in the course of the financial year. So how can we, on behalf of the community, have confidence that this appropriation of taxpayer’s funds is going in the right direction?
Mr Hargreaves: You can trust me.
MR PRATT: “Trust me,” he calls out. Instead, the minister’s actions during the estimates hearings showed that there are many grey areas within the TAMS budget, and there are many areas where the government has not yet decided how they will structure the new integrated department. First, they would not release the functional review. Secondly, the minister would not cooperate fully during estimates hearings. Either they just do not really know what they are doing when it comes to providing essential urban services or they are not willing to share their plans for reform with either the community or the public.
In estimates hearings the minister, on behalf of his government, just could not explain exactly how much all these changes will cost, how many jobs will be cut, what services will be axed and how the funding will be distributed to cover all these changes. When the minister was challenged on these things he deflected the questioning, through his unacceptable and belligerent behaviour.
When Mr Hargreaves starts to throw insults around the room, that says to me and to people who view this behaviour that we have clearly hit a sore point with the minister on issues that he knows are potentially damaging to him and his government, or that he just does not have the knowledge to answer the questions—either/or, or all of the above. In fact the minister’s behaviour was so bad during the hearings that the committee’s report
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