Page 1703 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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of those are not supported by the Canberra Liberals. They have run a campaign against them throughout the process. So it is a little bit rich of Mr Coe to be throwing accusations across the chamber when he does not even support some of the most important measures to provide more affordable housing to Canberrans.
MS LE COUTEUR: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Le Couteur.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, is the government’s affordable housing plan premised on the assumption that everyone in their lifetime will be able to purchase a home or does it recognise that homeownership is unlikely to ever occur for some people?
MR BARR: The latter.
Canberra Hospital—emergency department data
MR DOSZPOT: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, in the briefing provided to Mr Hanson it was acknowledged that the ACT Health Directorate was close to providing falsified data to the commonwealth on which reward funding would have been based. Are you confident that no other funding from the commonwealth may have been provided to ACT Health based on falsified data in other areas of health?
MS GALLAGHER: That is the information that I have been provided with. There has not been any rewards funding attached to emergency department performance until the new four-hour rule has been agreed to. So it is attached to completion of the first stage of that towards the end of this year, in November or December; I think it is December.
In relation to elective surgery, which is the only other area where performance funding is attached, we did not receive about $900,000 under the agreement there, for failure to meet targets. I would note that this was also raised at the health ministers meeting on Friday by another jurisdiction that has also failed to receive reward payments. They had similar concerns to the ones that the ACT government has. What we need, particularly if performance money is going to be attached, is an agreed national standard on management of waiting lists in elective surgery, and that work has been agreed to by health ministers. That is not what we have at the moment. What constitutes a waiting list here is quite different from what constitutes a waiting list in New South Wales. I think that ministers around Australia are fast realising, with reward money attached, what those differences might mean and the impact it might have on dollars that actually go to hospitals.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Minister, under the NEAT agreement, ACT Health has provided emergency department data to the commonwealth since 1 July 2010. Has ACT Health defrauded the commonwealth and is the ACT in breach of the NEAT agreement by providing falsified data?
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