Page 1096 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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Preschool Task Force
MR MOORE: I address my question to Mr Humphries as Minister for Education - just to give him a breather really! First of all, I thank the Minister for providing me with the names of the members of the preschool task force and the organisations they represent, which he did promptly yesterday. Considering the significance of this task force for the future of the preschool education community, will you ensure that the minutes of the meetings are made publicly available and that you start by giving them to me?
MR HUMPHRIES: That is a difficult question. I cannot see any reason why they should not be made publicly available. It ought to be the case that task forces and other bodies appointed by the Government to handle sensitive issues, should be able to deal frankly with the issues that they have been appointed to address. In those circumstances, sometimes a case could be made out for minutes remaining confidential, particularly when deliberation or debate is occurring on, for example, the relative merits of particular submissions put to that task force by particular groups or individuals. I give Mr Moore a guarded "yes". I will attempt to make available those minutes. Unless the committee itself believes that there are very strong reasons why I should not, I will attempt to do that.
Royal Canberra Hospital
MR WOOD: I direct a question to the Minister for Health. Mr Humphries, on ABC radio on Monday you said that if 5 per cent of ACT people indicated their opposition to the closure of Royal Canberra Hospital, you would reconsider your position. Do you stand by that statement and is that the Government's position?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, that was not what I said.
MR WOOD: It was.
MR HUMPHRIES: No. I was talking in the context of budget constraints and budget imposed cuts and I said that in respect of some of the issues that I had addressed - and I was considering a whole range of issues at the time - I would reconsider my approach if 5 per cent of the ACT's population came to me and said that they would directly trade-off increases in fees and charges against the closure of the Royal Canberra Hospital. In other words, if, rather than close these facilities, people were prepared to pay for them through additional taxes and charges, I would reconsider the position that I had taken on that. However, that does not mean that people simply need to sign a petition saying, "I want the Royal Canberra Hospital to stay open". That was not what I said and it was not what I intended to say. If people want to trade those two matters
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