Page 4780 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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MRS CARNELL: They are not my words. It is your report. You paid for it. You agreed with it. I think it is very interesting to note that in this report from the Auditor-General that the Public Accounts Committee looked at the Auditor-General did suggest that things were looking up; that programs were being put in place; that financial management systems were being put in place. Remember that this was in August 1993, a long time ago now, and also a long time before Arthur Andersen produced their report. Unfortunately, the high hopes of the Auditor-General were not followed through, or, according to Arthur Andersen, they were not followed through. The Minister continues to tell us how everything is getting better. Unfortunately, every financial report that comes down does not show them getting better.
The Minister suggests that this year they are going to come in on budget. Mr Berry said that every year. Mr Berry always said, "You cannot rely on one quarter; you cannot rely on one month". When the first quarter blew out, he said that it would be all right; but, of course, it never was all right in the next three quarters. When Mr Berry's budget was $3m over for the first quarter, it was going to be all right by the end of the year. When Mr Connolly's budget is $1.8m over for the first three months, even after getting $14m more than he was supposed to get in forward estimates, it is going to be all right. I suspect that it will be just as all right as Mr Berry's budgets were and that the budget will continue to blow out. Hopefully, some of the new management systems have been installed - ones that the Opposition totally support. We believe that the initiative of Trendstar is a very good way to go. It does go down the track. It is the first step in implementing casemix as both a financial tool and a management tool for the hospital. That, again, is something that the Opposition totally supports the Government in doing. We all believe that getting Health in on budget is particularly important. Nobody would doubt that. It is unfortunate that the Auditor-General's high hopes have not been translated into reality.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 77.
Motion (by Mr Berry) agreed to:
That the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (11.19): I will respond, very briefly. I thank Mrs Carnell for her acknowledgment that there are improvements going on in the financial management of ACT Health from the low point of the $17m blow-out under the Liberal Alliance Government. We have been getting progressively better. When this report was tabled last year, and when Arthur Andersens reported in the early part of this year, they were projecting about a $10m overexpenditure. We came in at about $4.4m, which is still not good enough. We are confident that we will come in on target this year. The hard yards of getting financial management systems in place over the last three or four years, after the system that we inherited from self-government, have not been easy. Mr Berry had the hard job of putting those systems in place and had his head kicked in by Mrs Carnell. There were attempts by Mrs Carnell every day to kick his head in. She still does that. The reality is that the hard work that Labor has put in to put these financial management systems in place is starting to deliver a result, and we are confident that we will get there.
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