Dr LIM - 2006-03-29
The minister’s figures do not seem to add up. I said that, if all the nurses were employed at the highest level, their salaries would come to about $13m. The minister rattled off a whole series of figures. Your additional 171 bureaucrats would be costing the Health Department over $15m a year to employ. Is it not the case that, if that $15m were to be transferred to either nurses or doctors, we would not have waiting lists the size we do now? Is it not the case that the reason you have not delivered a radiation oncology unit is because of the cost of employing these 171 extra bureaucrats?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I have made it very clear there is something of the order of 25 or 26 extra bureaucrats, as the member for Greatorex wants to call them. These are health administrators who support health programs from an administrative position. The other 520 or so of the additional positions that have gone into the health system are service delivery positions. I hope he understands that answer clearly now.
In terms of any connection to the oncology unit, the answer is absolutely not. There is absolutely no connection between those. On the issue of the oncology unit, I gave members an update on that yesterday. I have outlined the process that we are following. We are now awaiting word from the federal government as to whether they can partner with us to get that oncology unit going. At that point, we will make a decision about the oncology unit, which will have absolutely nothing to do with the member for Greatorex’s mythologies about this mysterious tribe of health administrators that are somewhere out in the system. We do not know where they are. We have done our audit of the Health jobs. We know exactly how many administrative positions have been put on. There are certainly none of the numbers that you are talking about.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I have made it very clear there is something of the order of 25 or 26 extra bureaucrats, as the member for Greatorex wants to call them. These are health administrators who support health programs from an administrative position. The other 520 or so of the additional positions that have gone into the health system are service delivery positions. I hope he understands that answer clearly now.
In terms of any connection to the oncology unit, the answer is absolutely not. There is absolutely no connection between those. On the issue of the oncology unit, I gave members an update on that yesterday. I have outlined the process that we are following. We are now awaiting word from the federal government as to whether they can partner with us to get that oncology unit going. At that point, we will make a decision about the oncology unit, which will have absolutely nothing to do with the member for Greatorex’s mythologies about this mysterious tribe of health administrators that are somewhere out in the system. We do not know where they are. We have done our audit of the Health jobs. We know exactly how many administrative positions have been put on. There are certainly none of the numbers that you are talking about.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016