Page 6253 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Page 2, line 12, omit subsection 353A(4), substitute the following subsection:
"(4) Nothing in subsection (3) authorises action that would contravene section 36 of the Children's Services Act 1986.".
Mr Speaker, the amendment proposing a new subsection 353A(4) was passed at about 12.40 pm, when members were waiting to go to lunch. I was indebted to the house at the time for delaying the lunch hour slightly. Mr Berry wanted to finalise another matter after it. I agree that Mr Duby pointed the error out, but the bell went and it was too late. We realised straightaway. The Parliamentary Counsel immediately advised me that we had duplicated the amendments. I apologise to the house for what occurred.
Amendments agreed to.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
BETTER CITIES PROGRAM FUNDING
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning): I seek leave to elaborate on an answer I gave to a question earlier today.
Leave granted.
MR WOOD: Earlier today Mr Stefaniak asked me a question concerning the ACT submission to the Commonwealth relating to the better cities program. In particular, he asked me to confirm or to deny a radio report about it. A number of aspects of this need to be explained. The first is that the program is structured in such a way as to guarantee each State and Territory a per capita share of the funding over the life of the program. This is not an annual guarantee but a guarantee over a five-year program.
The second aspect is that we were never advised formally of any deadline for submissions. My officials had been in contact with a vast range of Federal authorities about the program for several months since it was announced in the budget. The department has found that discussions on funding proposals under the better cities program have required consultation with the NCPA, the Department of Health, Housing and Community Services and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. In fact, the ACT Government submitted draft proposals on the program in July. These were acknowledged by the Prime Minister's Department at the end of July, and I quote from the first paragraph of that response from Mr Codd of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to Mr Harris:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .