Ms WALKER - 2015-04-28
Given that preventing disease and ill health is the smartest and cheapest way of creating a healthier Territory, why will 2015-16 see $6m less spent on Territory-wide primary healthcare? How can the minister possibly justify this given he believes spending $45 000 on travel to Cape Canaveral to investigate building a space industry in the Territory is an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money?
ANSWER
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is one of those times where you have to ask if the member knows how to read a budget book. I presume she is talking about page 149 of Budget Paper No 3 where it talks about disease prevention and control. There she has found what she considers to be a $6m cut in the disease control budget. The Budget 2014-15 disease control line item was $17.6m; in Budget 2015-16, which has just been announced, it is $21m …
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. The question was specifically about Territory-wide primary healthcare, with $70m spent in 2014-15 and $6m less for this year. I am not sure where he is going.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Leader of the Opposition. The minister heard the question and I am confident he will be getting to the answer.
Mr ELFERINK: Page 149, Budget Paper No 3 – Budget 2014-15 Territory-wide primary healthcare for the Department of Health was $64m. Primary healthcare Territory-wide in the current budget just announced is nearly $65m. So it has gone up. They do not know how to read budget books. This is the problem we have in the estimates process when they scrutinise the budget. You try to explain these things and one is left with the sensation you are explaining algebra to a slug. It just does not work! You point at the budget books and say you have $64m there, and these guys are sitting there chewing on the spine of the book looking at you blankly saying, ‘But there are some numbers in here’. I encourage the members opposite, to stop chewing on the spine and read the budget books.
The problem is they come into this place with questions prepared by staffers. They do not read the questions or examine the contents of the book before they start running the same inane assertions.
They randomly go through the book and say, ‘Oh, there is a number, oh there is another number, that is less, there must be something sneaky going on’. When the budget for 2014-15 says $64m and the next year it says $64m, then they are being more than slightly disingenuous in their approach.
Here is the answer. We are spending $1.4bn on health in this year’s budget, which is a substantial slice of the budget. That is up by about $150m on last year’s budget. We are providing health services to Territorians to make sure they have the best possible system in the country.
ANSWER
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is one of those times where you have to ask if the member knows how to read a budget book. I presume she is talking about page 149 of Budget Paper No 3 where it talks about disease prevention and control. There she has found what she considers to be a $6m cut in the disease control budget. The Budget 2014-15 disease control line item was $17.6m; in Budget 2015-16, which has just been announced, it is $21m …
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. The question was specifically about Territory-wide primary healthcare, with $70m spent in 2014-15 and $6m less for this year. I am not sure where he is going.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Leader of the Opposition. The minister heard the question and I am confident he will be getting to the answer.
Mr ELFERINK: Page 149, Budget Paper No 3 – Budget 2014-15 Territory-wide primary healthcare for the Department of Health was $64m. Primary healthcare Territory-wide in the current budget just announced is nearly $65m. So it has gone up. They do not know how to read budget books. This is the problem we have in the estimates process when they scrutinise the budget. You try to explain these things and one is left with the sensation you are explaining algebra to a slug. It just does not work! You point at the budget books and say you have $64m there, and these guys are sitting there chewing on the spine of the book looking at you blankly saying, ‘But there are some numbers in here’. I encourage the members opposite, to stop chewing on the spine and read the budget books.
The problem is they come into this place with questions prepared by staffers. They do not read the questions or examine the contents of the book before they start running the same inane assertions.
They randomly go through the book and say, ‘Oh, there is a number, oh there is another number, that is less, there must be something sneaky going on’. When the budget for 2014-15 says $64m and the next year it says $64m, then they are being more than slightly disingenuous in their approach.
Here is the answer. We are spending $1.4bn on health in this year’s budget, which is a substantial slice of the budget. That is up by about $150m on last year’s budget. We are providing health services to Territorians to make sure they have the best possible system in the country.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016