After 16 years of sniping, Skinner will now be target
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday March 28, 2011
JILLIAN SKINNER'S knowledge of public health will be her best advantage as she navigates the treacherous waters of the state's most difficult portfolio.During 16 years as Opposition spokeswoman on health, barring two brief forays into education, she has tirelessly keynoted obscure medical conferences and presented prizes at events far beneath the notice of actual government. Now she is taking the goodwill to the bank.Mrs Skinner, 66, supports the new hospital governance model that came into effect in January - a mainstay of federal government health reform - which makes managers accountable to regional councils.Day-to-day responsibility for NSW Health is more forbidding. The organisation is, as its director general, Debora Picone, has said, "bigger than the Australian army, and Coles [or] Woolworths. But there's not one hospital, not one ward, that's the same."The executive suites on the upper floors of the state's antiquated hospital stock are populated by hardcore Laborites, and Mrs Skinner is likely to promptly stage a strategic purge. But she must avoid leaving a vacuum. It is not clear there are enough people who combine the right political flavour and experience to fill the gaps.In opposition, Mrs Skinner - who has outlasted eight health ministers - has been a consistent but one-dimensional attacker. In government, she will have the chance to display her full range.Her policy muscle remains untested. The portfolio needs intellectual power and creativity to balance the promise of new medical technologies against the need for fiscal control as health consumes an ever escalating portion of the state budget.The Coalition's pre-election promises were largely the traditional shopping list of new beds, nurses and capital works.Mrs Skinner will hit the ground running with deep knowledge and a formidable work ethic, but with about 1.3 million treatment episodes a year, something always goes wrong in public hospitals. Errors occur. People die. Now she is responsible for them.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald