Mr BELL - 1995-02-23
The opposition has several questions to put to the minister. One of my colleagues will ask whether the minister can explain to this House why the government has allowed the poor delivery of primary health care and preventive health care to drag on unfixed for many years when it is clear that its failure is one of the key factors in maintaining the high level of sickness among Aboriginal people. We have further questions. Can the minister explain why, after a health indicators report 9 years ago, which told the government of this particular problem, he is only now acting to develop educational programs directed towards Aboriginal women?
The question I was going to ask is based on the minister's response on Tuesday 1 March 1994 to a question from the member for Barkly. He told the parliament:
Every hospital in Australia has waiting lists. It so happens that, when our waiting lists are compared with those interstate, ours compare favourably.
I ask the minister to compare that with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report on waiting lists which states that the Territory's capacity to handle elective surgery demands is well below that of other states and territories. It states that 8% of Territory elective patients wait over 12 months for admission, compared with a national average of 2%. It states that it would take almost 10 months to clear the existing waiting lists as compared with 2.3 months average for the rest of the states and territories.
My question was to be: will the minister now admit that he was lying about waiting lists prior to the election because of the political damage it would cause his government? Will he now admit that he and his government have failed Territorians abysmally in the provision of health services? Those were questions that I intended to ask the minister. Instead, I believe the minister's performance in this regard is deserving of censure.
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The question I was going to ask is based on the minister's response on Tuesday 1 March 1994 to a question from the member for Barkly. He told the parliament:
Every hospital in Australia has waiting lists. It so happens that, when our waiting lists are compared with those interstate, ours compare favourably.
I ask the minister to compare that with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report on waiting lists which states that the Territory's capacity to handle elective surgery demands is well below that of other states and territories. It states that 8% of Territory elective patients wait over 12 months for admission, compared with a national average of 2%. It states that it would take almost 10 months to clear the existing waiting lists as compared with 2.3 months average for the rest of the states and territories.
My question was to be: will the minister now admit that he was lying about waiting lists prior to the election because of the political damage it would cause his government? Will he now admit that he and his government have failed Territorians abysmally in the provision of health services? Those were questions that I intended to ask the minister. Instead, I believe the minister's performance in this regard is deserving of censure.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016