Page 2676 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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reaching national benchmarks or paring back costs to an acceptable level. The minister conceded:
It is acknowledged that our costs here across health are 22 per cent higher than the national average … But over the next five years we are bringing it down to within 10 per cent of the national average—still quite considerably higher than the national average.
But what is even more worrying is the apparent futility with which the new minister is approaching these challenges. How can the people of Canberra have faith in the ability of this government to deliver a cost-effective health system when the Minister for Health says about the current pressures of the system:
I do not know yet whether we can ever solve them.
That is a despairing comment which causes all sorts of concerns. If the government is not sure whether they can ever solve the current problems in the ACT health system, how can they ever hope to successfully tackle the longer-term pressures that are just around the corner such as childhood obesity, ever-longer life expectancies and an ageing population. Perhaps the minister can put these problems in the too-hard basket as well.
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
MR MULCAHY: Can I take my extra 10 minutes?
MR SPEAKER: Yes.
MR MULCAHY: In conclusion—and I will not labour any longer because I know Mr Smyth will have a range of things to say as well: can we say with confidence that the $615 million being appropriated by the ACT government to meet the health challenges of this territory is money well spent? By looking at the critical state of the current system, particularly with regard to its exorbitant costs and failure to meet national benchmarks, along with the token solutions that have been offered in the 2006-07 budget, the real question will be: will they make any meaningful impact on these problems? I fear that the response will be in the negative.
Listening to the Minister for Health in her uninspiring approach to tackling the current problems and the rather despairing observations she has made about future obstacles in the system, one can look with a deal of apprehension to the future. I know my electors look on with apprehension. People I have called on and doorknocked have said to me time and time again, “I hope my health continues because I am terrified if in the future I have to rely on a deteriorating ACT health system.”
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (5.26): The largest component of expenditure in the ACT budget is health. As the minister has pointed out many times, it is continuing to grow and the government needs to find long-term solutions to this problem. Such is the political nature of this portfolio that it has been exempt from the cuts made elsewhere in the budget.
However, this budget contains no innovation in cost-effectiveness. The only step taken has been to cut superannuation, but such a step provides little in the form of a long-term
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