Page 981 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 31 March 1993
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It was clearly drawn to your attention that there were differences between the Treasury documents and the Health documents, and that there were good reasons for those differences. It was quite wrong of you, Mrs Carnell, to go out there this morning and say - - -
Mrs Carnell: Your figures, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: No, I am sorry; it was quite wrong of you to go out there this morning and say that there was a $10m blow-out in the health budget, when you know full well what has been reported for the six months. By the end of the year, that $4m figure will grow because we will continue to treat ACT and south-east region residents. We will at the same time continue to try to rope in the extra costs that are occurring in the health system. That will mean that we will have to ask our employees to be more scrupulous about the way we provide services and to make sure that, wherever there are efficiencies, those efficiencies are carried through.
Mr Moore: Annette, ask him a supplementary question. Is the blow-out $4m, $6m or $10m?
MR BERRY: Mr Moore interjects with some smart alec remark.
Mr Moore: It was not smart alec. I was just asking: Is the blow-out $4m, $6m or $10m?
MR BERRY: It must be new, then. You have done something new, then - not made a smart alec remark. So there we have it, Madam Speaker - a campaign of misinformation.
Mr Moore: What is it - $4m, $6m or $10m?
MR BERRY: No, it was $4m around Christmas time, and it will be nearer to $10m by the end of the year, if the predictions are right.
Mr Moore: So Mrs Carnell was right.
MR BERRY: No, she was not, because Mrs Carnell said that it was $10m for the half-year. That was absolutely untrue and designed to misinform. She was clearly informed by the Chief Minister yesterday what the real picture was. There has never been any secret about the overspending that is going on in health and the extra people we are treating. To say that there has been is an outrageous fib.
ACTEW Enterprise Agreement
MR CORNWELL: My question is addressed to the Minister for Industrial Relations. I am interested to hear him talking about efficiencies in health. I ask: Is it not true, Minister, that an enterprise agreement approved by your colleague the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly, would save ACTEW at least $500,000, that is, half a million dollars a year, if implemented - efficiencies, in other words? Why do you oppose this agreement?
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