Ms CARTER - 2003-02-18
Minister, since the release of the review you have been going on and on about how your claim that previous governments have overseen blow-outs year after year, for up to a decade. I cannot find those comments in this review. It very much targets yourself and your coverage of the government. However, my question to you is: given that your previous - and one of your earlier - CEOs, Paul Bartholomew, said to the PAC: ‘There had not been in the past one instance where the department’s expenditure had exceeded its approved budget’. Who is telling the truth: you; the review, which does not talk about previous governments in any detail at all; or Mr Bartholomew?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it amazes me that, in fact, the opposition would even want to ask any questions about the review, because the document heralds a decade of problems in the Department of Health and Community Services. It demonstrates so clearly the problems …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, just stop for a moment. The minister is on her feet trying to answer a question that the opposition asked. I expect the opposition to at least listen.
Mrs AAGAARD: Madam Speaker, the review document is a very comprehensive document and I have it here as well. The whole review document looks at …
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I have just spoken to the opposition members. If you do not want to hear the answer, do not ask the question. If you do want to hear the answer, sit there and listen.
Mrs AAGAARD: The whole document looks at Health and Community Services outcomes in the Northern Territory. It looks at a decade of problems in this portfolio. It looks at emerging issues which have just been ignored. It looks, particularly, at three key areas: mental health services, oral health services, it looks at our hospitals. It looks at so many different things; how money has been taken from the community services sector, from the public health sector, and has been pushed into our hospitals to prop up those hospital systems. It shows how the entire structure of the department, but particularly its accountability, has been virtually non-existent.
These are things which we inherited, they are not things which we put in place. These are things which we are fixing. The entire document says the CLP failed in community services.
Members interjecting.
Mrs AAGAARD: I am sorry that they cannot cope with it.
It is important to say, though, that this report is not about individuals. It has hard words to say about management in the department. It is not about individuals, it is about a structure which has put people in a very bad place. I would have to say that the large number of staff who have been involved in preparing this document, putting in submissions, and the large number of people who have contacted myself and also most of the members of parliament on this side and said: ‘We found the bit in the report that we were concerned about. We are very happy with what it says in here. You have listened to us. You are doing what we always wanted to happen. Thank you very much, Martin Labor government’. So, sorry CLP, you left us with a terrible situation, we are fixing it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it amazes me that, in fact, the opposition would even want to ask any questions about the review, because the document heralds a decade of problems in the Department of Health and Community Services. It demonstrates so clearly the problems …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, just stop for a moment. The minister is on her feet trying to answer a question that the opposition asked. I expect the opposition to at least listen.
Mrs AAGAARD: Madam Speaker, the review document is a very comprehensive document and I have it here as well. The whole review document looks at …
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I have just spoken to the opposition members. If you do not want to hear the answer, do not ask the question. If you do want to hear the answer, sit there and listen.
Mrs AAGAARD: The whole document looks at Health and Community Services outcomes in the Northern Territory. It looks at a decade of problems in this portfolio. It looks at emerging issues which have just been ignored. It looks, particularly, at three key areas: mental health services, oral health services, it looks at our hospitals. It looks at so many different things; how money has been taken from the community services sector, from the public health sector, and has been pushed into our hospitals to prop up those hospital systems. It shows how the entire structure of the department, but particularly its accountability, has been virtually non-existent.
These are things which we inherited, they are not things which we put in place. These are things which we are fixing. The entire document says the CLP failed in community services.
Members interjecting.
Mrs AAGAARD: I am sorry that they cannot cope with it.
It is important to say, though, that this report is not about individuals. It has hard words to say about management in the department. It is not about individuals, it is about a structure which has put people in a very bad place. I would have to say that the large number of staff who have been involved in preparing this document, putting in submissions, and the large number of people who have contacted myself and also most of the members of parliament on this side and said: ‘We found the bit in the report that we were concerned about. We are very happy with what it says in here. You have listened to us. You are doing what we always wanted to happen. Thank you very much, Martin Labor government’. So, sorry CLP, you left us with a terrible situation, we are fixing it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016