Often viewed as the nightmare of portfolios, Health has been the Achilles heel of the Kennett government. The coalition's handling of the portfolio has taken the shine off its economic achievements and would suggest that this is the one area where it has had a reverse midas touch - little in this portfolio has been done with political finesse.
Upon its election, the coalition set about reforming almost all sectors of government, and health was to be no exception. The government continued the previous Labor administration's program of decentralising health services by introducing a number of radical reform initiatives. The previous departments of Health and Community Welfare Services were merged to form Health and Community Services, with Marie Tehan the senior minister. With the reduction in departments came a reduction in senior staff, and a number of professional bureaucrats were head-hunted to implement the coalition's reform program.

Although the Victorian parliament is in urgent need of reform, there is little likelihood of change in the near future. That this should be so is a matter of irony, given that the Kennett government has made massive structural and policy reforms in almost every portfolio since being elected in 1992. While the government has revolutionised the public service, privatised numerous public bodies, and dramatically altered policy areas such as health, education, transport and industrial relations, no such changes have been made to the workings of that instutition perhaps in greatest need of reform - the Legislative Council, Victoria's upper house. After a period of quite substantial constitutional reform by the Cain Labor government, parliamentary reform by the Kennett government has been virtually non-existent.