Page 1764 - Week 06 - Thursday, 19 May 1994
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Madam Speaker, if members opposite had any real concern for this issue, they would be a little bit more constructive. They know that they had even more trouble than we have had with the health budget. Every government in Australia is having trouble with its health budget. Instead, Madam Speaker, we get this constant allocation of blame, this constant carping and very little in the way of constructive offerings from members opposite. I think that we should all wish the Minister, and indeed the Department of Health, well in what is a formidable task before them.
Madam Speaker, getting control of this large budget is a task which simply has to be tackled. It is a very major part of the ACT's budget. For my part, I have willingly embraced the findings of the Andersen report, as has the Minister, and we will simply be getting on with it. I do not expect that to lead to an overnight 100 per cent improvement in the financial management of Health; but by taking a fairly pragmatic and staged approach to it, a sensible approach which is outlined in this report, I expect that we will eventually see major improvements in the management of the health budget.
Mr Kaine, as the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has reported to this Assembly in the past on the improvements that have occurred in the management of the health budget.
Mr Connolly: And had to acknowledge that they were real improvements.
MS FOLLETT: He has acknowledged that real improvements are occurring. The Andersen report will be of great assistance in continuing that improved performance in Health, and I, for one, offer the Minister my full support in implementing that report.
MR KAINE: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. The Chief Minister is fond of harking back to 1991 and saying that the Alliance Government stuffed it all up and, to quote her, that we had our heads in the sand. I remind the Chief Minister that since then her Government has incurred nearly $30m worth of overruns. I now ask whether she has had her head deeper in the sand than the Alliance Government ever had, because she has done nothing about it.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I hesitate to point it out to Mr Kaine, but we have been in government rather longer than he was. As I have said, throughout the entire course of every government in this place, the health budget has been difficult to control. I make no bones about that. What I am saying is that with this new report we have a new approach. Mr Kaine himself, through the Public Accounts Committee, has gone on the record pointing to the improvements that have occurred in the management of the health budget. I expect to see that trend continue, and I certainly wish both the Department of Health and the Minister well with the task.
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