PAXTON REPORT

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:59): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Will the government immediately implement the financial data recommendation of the Paxton report which will not require any loss of services?

The Paxton summary report tabled on 1 April 2008 identifies that 'there is a material variation between the reported entity results and the underlying operating results' in each of the entities reviewed. The report recommends that the financial information published should disclose the former, which includes government bail-outs during the year. The recommendation affects the disclosure as an accounting entity without affecting any staff or services. This week the government tabled the CNAHS annual report, which disclosed an annual deficit of almost $11 million, but this does not tell us the true deficit as recommended by the Paxton report.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:00): As I said at the time that I released this report, this is an example of the government attempting to make our public health system work as efficiently as it can. At the time, the deputy leader demonstrated, as I predicted she would, an attempt to have a bob each way, that is, using the report to condemn the government for failures and also using the report to defend practices which she thought might be a political advantage to her if she were to defend them.

This is a report which has been published now for a month or so and, as I said, we are working through all the recommendations and we will attempt to apply the principles that have been recommended by Paxton. Some of the issues, of course, require sensitive handling, particularly in relation to workforce issues where there is an award in place and so on, but in relation to the bureaucratic procedures I am very keen for the department to implement the recommendations as laid out in Paxton.

The central issue that Paxton raises, which is a conundrum not only for this government but for every government in Australia—indeed it is not a political thing, it is not partisan politics, it is an issue—is the conundrum between providing a budget to a department to run a service and then expecting that department to operate within that budget, and that is certainly what the Treasurer expects, and the other principle, which is that whenever anybody turns up to a public hospital facility they expect to get service.

It is impossible to manage those two elements exactly, and from time to time, of course, there are more services delivered than are budgeted for, and that is where we get deficits and so on. Trying to manage that is a difficult thing but that is what we are trying to do. The Paxton report makes some useful suggestions about how we might manage that.