Page 3936 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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MADAM SPEAKER: I call Mr Connolly.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, you called me, but I am not sure that the question was addressed to me. I have no title such as the title that was used by Mr De Domenico. Once again, this shows the obsession of the Liberals with gutterism and petty, futile tactics. If they were fair dinkum, they would stop being sly and grubby and ask me a question about the matter which clearly is obsessing them.
Mr De Domenico: No; it is obsessing you. You need the valium; not us.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr De Domenico!
MR CONNOLLY: However, I believe that you wanted to ask me a question about health budgets and throughputs. Firstly, Madam Speaker, members and members of the public: Do not believe anything the Liberals tell you about health overruns or health blow-outs. We recall what Mrs Carnell was saying at about this time last year about Woden Valley Hospital and how the health budget was going to blow out by $10m. In fact, last year Health spent less than it was allocated in the budget. Health did not spend the whole budget.
Mrs Carnell: That was because you did not see the patients that you were supposed to.
MR CONNOLLY: No; that is not the case. If you knew anything about public finance, you would know that that is not the case. At least listen to Mr Kaine; he does know something about public finance, Mrs Carnell. However, we did not say that Health worked within its budget. We do have a very complex system of adjusting the health budget in relation to cross-border payments, the constantly changing Medicare arrangements and the constantly shifting sands about public and private mix. We have operated on a certain standard for health overruns, which resulted last year in a blow-out, which seems to be the universally accepted term - - -
Mr Kaine: Which you coined.
Mr Humphries: You coined the term; you should know.
MR CONNOLLY: At about this time last year Mrs Carnell said that it was going to be $10m. Arthur Andersen said that it was going to be $9m. Mrs Carnell should say, "Congratulations, Mr Connolly, because you brought it in at $4.5m". We were very honest, very open and very frank; when we could have said that Health did not spend its appropriation. No, we said that Health had an overrun of some $4.5m last year; not the $10m that Mrs Carnell was predicting at this time last year, and not the $17m that Mr Humphries produced when he was Minister for Health.
Mr Humphries might well become Minister for Health again if this ramshackle lot were ever to achieve office, because Mrs Carnell has been very coy about who would be Health Minister - unless superwoman over there thinks that she can be Chief Minister and Health Minister, and run one of the most difficult portfolios and run the Government.
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