Page 2650 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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regularly consider opportunities to expand the services and ensure that treatment remains appropriate and best practice. Through their work, they ensured that over 80 per cent of presentations at a walk-in centre between January and March this year were able to be treated fully, with just 7.1 per cent redirected to the emergency department.
Public housing—renewal program
MR PARTON: Madam Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister in his capacity as Treasurer. Chief Minister, regarding the 2015 asset recycling initiative agreement with the commonwealth government, did the funds from the sale of the ageing public housing complexes and the associated 15 per cent commonwealth bonus—that money—go directly to light rail as per the agreement you signed?
MR BARR: Thank you Madam Speaker. Well, Mr Parton, the agreement is public. It does indicate the assets that were sold and the bonus payments that were part of the Asset Recycling Initiative. The money that went to light rail was, from memory, about $67 million. That was the 15 per cent bonus. The agreement with the commonwealth ensured there would be no net reduction in the number of public housing properties. So the accusation—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR BARR: So the accusation that has been made is that the sale of the properties attracted both the sale price plus a 15 per cent bonus from the commonwealth. The bonus went to light rail; the sale price of the properties is reinvested in housing.
MR PARTON: Chief Minister why did either your housing minister or treasury officials give an indication to media that that bonus money was directly reinvested back into public housing?
MR BARR: I do not believe that they did. The mechanism and the agreement in the schedule to the Asset Recycling Initiative—an initiative of the Abbott-Hockey government—was quite clear in relation to the requirements. Now I also need to note, as you would be aware Mr Parton, most of the assets were not public housing. They were in fact the TAB, the former visitors information bureau site and a number of other sites that were sold that were not public housing sites. Yes, some sites that contained public housing were part of the asset recycling initiative. The bonus, the 15 per cent that was the commonwealth contribution, went into light rail. The point is that we had to go through that quite convoluted process in order to get federal support for the light rail project.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR BARR: Fortunately, for future stages of the project we do not have to go through that process, depending, of course, on the outcomes of future budget rounds; there is already a further commonwealth contribution that was announced by former Senator Zed Seselja—through gritted teeth, Madam Speaker, in the most uncomfortable press conference of his career, standing next to me, and the former Deputy Prime Minister,
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