Page 2710 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010

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Mr Hargreaves: You’ve got 30 seconds.

MR STANHOPE: Mr Hargreaves says I have got 30 seconds and I had better hurry up. I only need 10. This is what the scrutiny of bills committee found: “This is a bill for an act to amend the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act to allow for random roadside drug testing to be conducted alongside or independent of random roadside breath testing and provides the testing requirements, procedures, offences and penalties applicable to the introduction of random drug testing.” That is it, which both Ms Bresnan and Mr Hanson say provides tripartisan support for this legislation that justifies its rushing through the Assembly tomorrow. (Time expired.)

Health—expenditure

MR SMYTH: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, by what rate does health spending grow in the ACT annually?

MS GALLAGHER: I will get you the exact figure, but it is in the order of nine per cent.

Mrs Dunne: You said 10 per cent earlier.

MR SMYTH: A supplementary question: I note that we now have two percentages and two answers—10 per cent and nine percent—so, Minister, I refer to Budget Paper 3, page 345, which shows that health spending grows, by my calculations, at 7.8 per cent in the 2010-11 budget, six per cent in the 2011-12 budget, 6.9 per cent in the 2012-13 budget and 7.3 per cent in the 2013-14 year budget. Treasurer, how do you reconcile this with the answer you just gave?

MS GALLAGHER: Because the growth factor that we have put into the budget—factored into the forward estimates—on average, funds health growth at 6.3 per cent. If it grows faster than that, we deal with that through use of third party revenues or through the Treasurer’s advance.

MR HARGREAVES: A supplementary.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hargreaves.

MR HARGREAVES: Thanks very much. My supplementary to the Minister for Health is: what was the percentage of health growth in the financial year 2000-01?

MS GALLAGHER: I do not believe the Liberal government factored any forward growth into their budget for health. We took that—

Mr Stanhope: Or for wages either.

MS GALLAGHER: That is right. There was some wages growth; what was it? One per cent. They offered 14 per cent to the nurses and they factored in one per cent for it in their budget; that is right.

Mr Seselja: Are you correcting your statement?


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