Page 2832 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .


Hospice

MS ELLIS: I have a very good question and it will be very relevant to a number of people in this community. My question is directed to the Minister for Health and I ask: Where will the new ACT Government - where will the ACT Government establish the new hospice?

MR BERRY: That was correct. It is a new ACT Government with some new promises, which we intend to deliver. The Government promised to construct a hospice on the Acton Peninsula site. Those funds were announced in the 1992-93 new capital works program. Last Monday the Cabinet decided that the hospice would be constructed on the Acton site, in accordance with our promise to the community. Cabinet also agreed that the master development control plan for Acton should include provision for convalescent and rehabilitation and aged care services and the QEII home for mothers and babies.

This decision was announced in August last year. We have gone to the implementation phase of a promise we announced before the last election. I did not hear too many complaints about it from the Liberals opposite in the election campaign.

Mrs Carnell: Yes, you did; heaps. Do you want me to table the press releases?

MR BERRY: Not everybody runs your press releases, Kate. A lot of them end up on the spike. It is an important election promise which has the support of the ACT community. We were elected on the basis of it. We are very proud to be in a position to be able to implement that promise. We will spend approximately $3m on the project, which will create sorely needed jobs in the ACT. It is something we are proud of and something we will be proud of for many years into the future.

Electoral Legislation - Publication

MR DE DOMENICO: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Chief Minister. I refer to an article in the Canberra Times on Wednesday, 14 October, which published details of the Electoral Bill, saying that it had been "obtained by the Canberra Times". I ask the Chief Minister: Have any investigations taken place into the source of the leak of this document? Given the paranoia that exists in the executive wing of the Government, has the Chief Minister instructed her officials to proceed with an investigation under section 10 of the Crimes (Offences Against the Government) Act? If not, why not?

MS FOLLETT: I think the answer to all of Mr De Domenico's questions is no. What he fails to appreciate is that we were dealing there with a decision already made by the Government, a finished piece of work about to be introduced into this Assembly. That is a very different matter from material on which the Government wishes to base a decision or to hear argument one way or the other. So, the answer to all of his questions is no.

MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Why is no investigation being sought under the Crimes Act when an investigation was sought into a leaked budget document that related to the health portfolio which proved to be wrong? Could it be that this leak was sanctioned by the Government?


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .