Question Time

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is to the Minister for Health. What was the maximum value that the health department's unreconciled accounts reached that resulted in accountants PKF being employed to reconcile the accounts? Yesterday the minister would not deny that the value of the unreconciled accounts had reached over $200 million. The opposition wants to know: what was the highest figure reached?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:09): I thank the member for the question. I was trying to think this through last night. I imagine—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, just for the benefit of other side, when they interject they should not interject behind their hand to avoid your seeing them, because I cannot I hear what they are saying, so the interjection is noisy but it is lost on me. I did contemplate the notion of reconciliation. I was thinking that, every year, when I do my tax, I reconcile my chequebook, statements and all the rest of it. So, at the beginning of the reconciliation process nothing is reconciled and at the end everything is reconciled. That is exactly the process we went through when we moved from one system to another.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Reynell.