Ms WALKER - 2016-05-24
Today’s Health budget reveals that remote primary health services in Central Australia are proposed to be reduced by $7.5m on this year’s budget estimate, as per page 185, Budget Paper No 4. Which clinics and services will be affected by your slashing of community-based health services of our remote communities?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is Budget Paper No 3 ...
Ms Walker: Budget Paper No 3, page 185.
Mr ELFERINK: Part of the problem we have when dealing with the Labor Party is they genuinely struggle to deal with their own budgets.
I was in Titjikala several days ago opening the new health clinic, where we will provide health staff. The week before that I was in Papunya opening the new, vastly-expanded health clinic.
The Chief Minister has just pointed out to me the obvious and thunderously dull error the member opposite has just made. Budget 2015-16, which is the current financial year, shows a $339m income for the Central Australian Health Service. The 2016-17 budget is $377m.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. The minister is being rather tricky. It is clear on page 185 under Primary Health Care …
Members interjecting.
Ms WALKER: I am happy to walk across to show the highlighted paper.
Madam SPEAKER: No, your point of order?
Ms WALKER: There is clearly a reduction of $7.5m and I am looking for an answer.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I do not know if the member wrote the question or one of the sparks on the fourth floor, but she is chewing on the spine trying to figure out what is in the budget paper. ‘If I bites really hard I might find something.’
We have opened a raft of health clinics in the bush. The member opposite is staggering in her lack of ability to understand how this works, and this is the future Health minister of the Northern Territory, according to her. What did they do when in government? Did they build health clinics? No, they built bureaucracies.
Mr Tollner: They built the prison. That was the most important agenda item.
Mr ELFERINK: I pick up on the interjection – they built bureaucracies but did nothing else. We are building the Palmerston hospital, and all they managed to do was park some trucks in a car park to the tune of $300 000 a year and put a fence around them. That was their contribution to a Palmerston hospital.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. My question was very direct. It was not about the Palmerston Regional Hospital; it was about the slashing of $7.5m from primary health services in Central Australia. If he could answer that would be really good.
Mr ELFERINK: I have already read out the numbers. These are the people who paid for a $300 000 car park to pretend they would build a hospital. These are the people who have announced they will shut down the Royal Darwin Hospital. These are the people who claim to be the future of Territory health, yet when they were in Health they built nothing other than bureaucracies. We deliver services, clinics, hospitals and outcomes.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is Budget Paper No 3 ...
Ms Walker: Budget Paper No 3, page 185.
Mr ELFERINK: Part of the problem we have when dealing with the Labor Party is they genuinely struggle to deal with their own budgets.
I was in Titjikala several days ago opening the new health clinic, where we will provide health staff. The week before that I was in Papunya opening the new, vastly-expanded health clinic.
The Chief Minister has just pointed out to me the obvious and thunderously dull error the member opposite has just made. Budget 2015-16, which is the current financial year, shows a $339m income for the Central Australian Health Service. The 2016-17 budget is $377m.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. The minister is being rather tricky. It is clear on page 185 under Primary Health Care …
Members interjecting.
Ms WALKER: I am happy to walk across to show the highlighted paper.
Madam SPEAKER: No, your point of order?
Ms WALKER: There is clearly a reduction of $7.5m and I am looking for an answer.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I do not know if the member wrote the question or one of the sparks on the fourth floor, but she is chewing on the spine trying to figure out what is in the budget paper. ‘If I bites really hard I might find something.’
We have opened a raft of health clinics in the bush. The member opposite is staggering in her lack of ability to understand how this works, and this is the future Health minister of the Northern Territory, according to her. What did they do when in government? Did they build health clinics? No, they built bureaucracies.
Mr Tollner: They built the prison. That was the most important agenda item.
Mr ELFERINK: I pick up on the interjection – they built bureaucracies but did nothing else. We are building the Palmerston hospital, and all they managed to do was park some trucks in a car park to the tune of $300 000 a year and put a fence around them. That was their contribution to a Palmerston hospital.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. My question was very direct. It was not about the Palmerston Regional Hospital; it was about the slashing of $7.5m from primary health services in Central Australia. If he could answer that would be really good.
Mr ELFERINK: I have already read out the numbers. These are the people who paid for a $300 000 car park to pretend they would build a hospital. These are the people who have announced they will shut down the Royal Darwin Hospital. These are the people who claim to be the future of Territory health, yet when they were in Health they built nothing other than bureaucracies. We deliver services, clinics, hospitals and outcomes.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016