Page 969 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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Bicycle Safety Helmets
MRS NOLAN: My question is to the Chief Minister, deputising for the Minister for Housing and Urban Services. We are all aware, I am sure, of the bicycle accident not so long ago involving a young Melrose High School student who was not wearing a safety helmet. What is your Government's intention in relation to the wearing of safety helmets by cyclists?
MS FOLLETT: I will take the question on notice and provide an answer as soon as I can.
ACT Budget
MR DUBY: My questions are directed to the Chief Minister in connection with the budget papers released yesterday. I refer in particular to the allocation of $100,000 - - -
Mr Wood: I think this is the first question on budget, is it?
MR DUBY: It might be the second, I think, Mr Wood.
Mr Wood: That says something, does it not?
MR DUBY: I refer to the $100,000 set aside for the provision of an ACT Mediation Service. I would like to ask the Chief Minister: How much of that money is actually going to go into salaries; and, of those salaries, how many staff will that amount of money be employing?
MS FOLLETT: Yes, the ACT Mediation Service and the $100,000 that we have proposed to put into that service in our draft budget statement yesterday is an area of new policy that I think would find wide support in the community. I am particularly aware that this mediation service has been conducted on a voluntary basis for some months now. It is my view, and indeed the Government's view, that it is an extremely useful way within the community of resolving conflicts without having to resort to the more formal and much more expensive legal processes. Where there are disputes that can be resolved by mediation, this kind of a service can perform a very valuable community service. As Mr Duby has pointed out, we are only proposing to allocate some $100,000 to that service and, without having the detailed documents before me, I believe that the vast majority of that $100,000 would indeed be taken up in salaries. One would expect that it would be either one or two people working for that amount of money, either on a full- or part-time basis.
A member: Hopefully more than one.
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