Page 3035 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 11 September 1990
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MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question. My question was about the transitional committees, not about your officers. It was about the transitional committees that have been established and that have some people - - -
Mr Jensen: This happened in 1988, Michael.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR MOORE: I do not care what happened then. If they did it badly, that does not mean you have to. The transitional committees are made up from people from both schools - the closing school and the school that will be the receiving school. This is what I was referring to.
MR HUMPHRIES: I think I have answered the question, Mr Speaker. I will get back to Mr Moore with advice.
Breast Cancer Screening
MRS NOLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Humphries in his capacity, this time, as Minister for Health. Will the ACT participate in the national program for the early detection of breast cancer?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Mrs Nolan for her question. A report on the national pilot mammography screening program was tabled at the meeting of all Commonwealth, State and Territory Health Ministers in June of this year which I attended in Brisbane. It recommended a national program for the early detection of breast cancer on the basis that, done properly, and with a very high take-up rate, the death rates from breast cancer could be reduced by some 16 per cent nationally.
The ACT, along with Tasmania and the Northern Territory, did not participate in the pilot scheme and does not have the necessary infrastructure in place to participate immediately. Whilst it is important that women in the ACT have access to breast screening to detect cancers early, it is also important that there be appropriate treatment facilities, with counselling and other support mechanisms in place. The considerable costs of an early detection program alone need to be accurately assessed, particularly in the light of the ACT budgetary situation.
However, I am pleased to advise the Assembly that the Government has decided, in principle, to participate in the program. We will be undertaking considerable planning to determine the best way to implement the program in the ACT, and a small working party has been set up within the ACT Community Health Service to look into all these factors. Negotiations will be taking place with the Commonwealth over the next six weeks.
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