Page 2919 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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MR WHALAN: Just give me time. I will get to it. The answer then is that, in addition to that consultation, there was a very substantial program of visits. They included, for example, visits to Birrigai in the company of Tony Fleming and Meg Keen, both of whom had commented on the budget. We had visits to special schools - - -
Mr Jensen: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I refer the members of the house to standing order 118 which states:
The answer to a question without notice
(a) shall be concise and confined to the subject matter of the question; and
(b) shall not debate the subject to which the question refers ...
MR SPEAKER: I take that as a valid point of order. Please get to the point of the question, Minister.
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, as a result of this process of consultation, as the Government had undertaken, then there were modifications to the budget which was presented to this chamber and which was the subject of debate in the last couple of days and passed by the Assembly this morning in the form of the Appropriation Bill.
If the Leader of the Opposition takes the trouble to go to the draft budget statement of 25 July and then goes to the Appropriation Bill, he will see that amendments were made. Those amendments have been spelt out quite clearly, and they result from the consultation process. To say that they amounted to a figure of $2.5m is totally incorrect and inaccurate. That is not the figure, Mr Speaker.
Vietnam Veterans Centre
MR JENSEN: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Housing and Urban Services. I understand that she has received a request from a group representing service veterans organisations in the ACT which has been allocated funds by the Commonwealth for the establishment of a halfway house for veterans. It is waiting for the allocation of a house from ACT Housing Trust stock. Can the Minister advise when this allocation might take place, as the board of management of the Phil Thompson Centre, as the centre is to be called, is ready to commence operations?
MRS GRASSBY: Thank you, Mr Jensen. I have received a submission from the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia, and I am writing to them expressing my congratulations on their obtaining funding from the Commonwealth Minister for Veterans' Affairs for this worthwhile project. I have referred the matter of the allocation of a house to the Housing Trust and I have written to the association informing them of this. As soon
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