Page 3031 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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The Opposition Leader's alternative budget is full of gumph and drivel. But I must take up some of the time of the Assembly to point out the inadequacies of her so-called balanced budget initiative. I have already mentioned the Liberals' health hoax - the slashing of funding while trying to dupe the ACT community into believing that these conservatives will improve services. Mrs Carnell's policies in this area, as in all others, are frightening. She is using the Jeff Kennett approach to government efficiency. She believes that she can save $26m by introducing casemix funding. It is true that casemix funding, which is currently in use in the hospital, will create efficiencies of this order. However, the Government intends to put that money back into the health system to improve medical services that will most benefit the Canberra community. What is Mrs Carnell going to do with this money? She is going to take it out of the health system. She is actually going to slash health funding. We all know that casemix funding is to be used as a means of making hospitals more efficient, not as a means of reducing funding. But it is not a panacea.
Reduced funding would create a disaster of monumental proportions for the ACT health system. The Government will be using casemix funding in the way it was meant to be used - to reduce the waiting lists and to increase effective funding to those areas of the hospital that most need that boost. So, Mrs Carnell, by her own admission, is going to slash health funding. I understand that. She is, of course, in the Liberal Party! She is not unaware of the ACT community's desire for the health system to improve. So, what does she do? She does what is so easily done by opposition leaders anywhere - she promises an increase in services. But, as with most of Mrs Carnell's promises, the figures just do not add up. It is not possible to slash funding, to take away huge amounts of money, and then to promise more and more services. Clearly, the claims are outlandish.
In short, this Government continues with its improvement of services, seeking ways to do it better, increasing efficiencies and continuing to balance the budget. This Government will not slash the budget, to the cost of the ACT community. This Government will not slash the budget merely to get a good pre-election headline. Being in government means taking far more responsibility than that. This Government has increased the creditworthiness of the Territory, as rated by the internationally accepted firm of Standard and Poor's, while being the "stand out performer in terms of social policy", according to the Evatt Foundation. We have an AAA credit rating, with an AAA social justice program. On the other hand, we have the magicians opposite, the wizards, who will slash government spending yet increase services. At best, the Liberals have a peculiar concept of social justice and caring for people. At worst, they are behaving deceitfully, attempting to pull a hoax on the ACT community.
MR KAINE (4.02): Is it not amazing how often in debates on matters like this from the other side we hear things like "slash and burn" and "destroy the fabric of society"? It never seems to occur to them that good management can achieve reductions in budgets and can protect the public sector without slashing and burning and without destroying the fabric of society. But, to listen to Mr Berry and Ms Ellis, there are only two options: You pad everything or you destroy the fabric of society. That is clearly a nonsense. There is great scope in between for dealing intelligently with a budget of $1.3 billion and delivering services better, more efficiently and at lower cost.
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