Page 714 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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Mr Moore: Oh, come on; we are always allowed a supplementary question. Why are you so crabby today?
Mr Kaine: Are you going to argue with the Speaker every time he makes a decision?
Mr Berry: I seek leave, Mr Speaker - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Berry! The Chief Minister has the floor.
Hospital Services Budget
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I have several questions that I took on notice in earlier sessions and I will provide the answers to them now. The first is from Ms Follett. She asked a question about the hospitals budget and I undertook to give her a comprehensive reply, which I will now do. The question had to do with what was the expenditure up until the time that she asked the question and what was the projected expenditure.
Mr Speaker, at the end of January of this year consolidated fund recurrent expenditure on the hospital budget was $105.7m. The forecast recurrent expenditure up until that time had been $98.5m. Unless management controls can significantly curb expenditure over the remainder of this financial year, it is likely that expenditure associated with running the ACT hospital system will be greater than was anticipated at the start of the financial year.
Mr Moore: That is what is called a blow-out.
MR KAINE: But, as I have said, it is not a blow-out. It is not a blow-out. They have this word on their brain and they cannot get it off.
Mr Speaker, the recurrent cost of running the hospitals is met from two sources. It is met from revenue received directly by the hospitals and it is supplemented by a grant from the consolidated fund. At budget time, when we produced the budget, the grant for this year was estimated at $171.8m. That is the amount of money that we expected to spend out of our consolidated fund. Since the budget was brought down, there have been award increases which are currently estimated to require an additional $1.95m this year. That, of course, is a legitimate adjustment to the budget. A bulk provision is made in the budget to meet such increases across the whole range of ACT Government services, and any particular agency's budget is supplemented by payments under section 5 of the Appropriation Act.
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