Page 2569 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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particular, by members of the health community that this committee would continue to have responsibility for the running of the hospital system.
Mr Speaker, it is undoubtedly true that the board appointed by the Minister was a good one. Since the eruption of this issue in recent days I have made the effort to speak to people involved in health about the hospital system and asked them what they thought of our interim hospitals board. I have to say that, with the exception of individuals who are associated with the management of the union movement, particularly with respect to hospital unions, I have found universally good words spoken about that board.
Unfortunately, it is necessary to raise the quality and the conduct of that board because that is the issue that is being raised in this debate, and it is being raised particularly by the way in which the Minister has suggested on a number of occasions that the existing board will have to go. The words I think he used were "its days are numbered". So, to some extent, personalities come into this, and that is very unfortunate.
The board, Mr Speaker, has a number of representatives. It is broadly representative, I think, of the community. It has a lawyer, a business person, a public servant and, of course, it has representatives of staff. I understand it is one of the most generously inclined in that sense towards staff representatives of any board in the country. The kind of board that has been set up in this situation is standard across Australia; it is not exceptional. It is the kind of board that runs almost every, if not every, hospital in this country.
Then we had self-government, and we had our own Minister for Health elected, with responsibility in this area. He inherited, undoubtedly, a less than desirable health situation. Indeed, he acknowledged that in today's question time. He could be excused for acknowledging frequently the poor system that he inherited. But that has not been the line he has taken.
Almost consistently since the beginning of his tenure as Minister for Health this Minister has said that we have a first-class hospital system. Those are his words, "a first-class hospital system". He makes reference to that all the time. He is saying constantly, "The garden is rosy. Don't worry, be happy. Things will sort themselves out". That is a strange attitude, Mr Speaker, because clearly, at the time he inherited that garden, things were not rosy, and I would submit to this house that things today are very far from rosy. In fact, our garden is a mess.
Mr Berry: You would have to take a bit of the credit for that.
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