Page 4664 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Hospitals Budget
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Minister for Health. The Minister said in question time yesterday that he had been made aware of matters which were of some concern in the hospitals budget. I think that was the phrase he used. Will he tell the house when he was informed of these problems and by whom? Were these concerns contained in the monthly financial updates or were they provided in some other form of documentation?
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I do not recall the context in which I made the comment "some concern", but I have long said that there is concern about financial management in ACT health. That, of course, is a flow-on from the former Government. We all recall that because of the inactivity of the former Government there was a loss of control in financial management culminating in the Enfield report, a report which in my view was unnecessary had the Government taken it into its mind to act as it should have done when it was first reported to it in December 1989 that there were difficulties in health. The lack of action and the lack of appropriate direction from the former Minister led to a situation where the health and hospital system was in deep trouble.
If I said that there is some concern, that is an understatement; there is deep concern about financial management in the hospital system. That concern remains. Labor has been in office for a short time. We have put together a budget, which is a tight budget. We have given the board the task of delivering that budget. The board has said that it is prepared to do so, and is getting on with the job of managing the hospital system. So, I have to say that there is some concern about it. It has always been the case and it arises principally, Mr Speaker, from the lack of action and the mismanagement of the former Government.
Land Development
MR KAINE: I would like to direct a question to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Minister, some months ago I asked two questions, one of you and one of the Chief Minister. I asked you what were the ramifications of taking back the development of land from the private sector and turning it into a public operation. At the same time I asked the Chief Minister where the estimated $70m was going to come from to allow public development of land to be resumed. In the answer to the question that I posed to you, you said that a review was being undertaken and that the completed review would allow the Government to judge the effects on future budgets. The Chief Minister, in answer to a similar question, said that the Government had not considered the issue of changing arrangements and has no intention of reviewing the matter during the term of this office. Which of you was correct?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .