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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 3317 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

Accountability is about providing accurate figures that are accessible, not hidden within changeable graphs and statistics. Accountability is about saying you are going to do something and delivering it.

My understanding is that we are still waiting for the government's access to elective surgery reports to deliver on the promises made by the minister when they announced that the people of the ACT would be able to get updated information on elective surgery waiting lists. It is a commendable trait, but it appears that this information is not being delivered in the way that people expect, and that is possibly the crux of the question.

The minister would like us to note that the website will be active from September 2003 and will include information on the waiting list reports, as well as a report on the waiting times. When we had discussions about this earlier this year and last year, we were always being assured that the website would be updated soon. Maybe we need to have questions about waiting times for website updates.

The minister is getting quite wound up about this debate-

Mr Corbell: You don't know what you're talking about!

MS DUNDAS: He is getting quite wound up about this debate because he is feeling pressure about the accountability of hospital information that the Assembly is calling for. I support what Mr Smyth is getting at today, and I am also supportive of the amendments Ms Tucker has foreshadowed to include patient activity data and having the information that we require as soon as practicable.

I expect we should not always be waiting for the Assembly to sit to get information. There are months when we go without sitting and having that information as soon as practicable provides members of this Assembly with the information they are looking for to be able to make decisions on how budgets are worked out and how future directions are handled.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (6.25): The amendment of Mr Corbell is interesting; we will go through the points one by one. Point 1 is simply irrelevant. It says that the previous Liberal government did not publish hospital waiting lists on a set date. They were generally available on or about the 21st of the month-three months after the information became available.

Mr Corbell: So, you're imposing a higher standard on us than you imposed on yourself?

MR SMYTH: What's wrong with urging you to have a higher standard? We are very twitchy tonight, Mr Corbell.

MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Direct your comments through the chair, Mr Smyth.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I would love to address my comments through the chair, as you would know.

MR SPEAKER: You have not shown much of a passion for it yet.

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