Page 1762 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 June 1993
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MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question. Seeing that the Chief Minister has now made the statement three times - once in the Canberra Times and twice during question time today - that it is, in her words, very unlikely that existing residential, commercial and rural leases in the ACT would be affected by the claim, will she give an ironclad guarantee that ACT leaseholders will not have to pay royalties to the Aboriginal people?
MS FOLLETT: This is just further scaremongering by members opposite - absolute scaremongering. They have clearly misunderstood the entire import of the High Court's decision. I will be seeking leave later on today to make a statement about the outcome of the COAG meeting in which I will reiterate for members what the Mabo decision is and what it means. They might learn something through that process. I will say again that for those leases issued between 1975, the date when the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act came into force, and the date of the Mabo decision, late 1992, there is a question of compensation. That question was on the table at the COAG meeting. The Commonwealth, at that meeting, offered to provide any compensation that might be required. The conservative members opposite should fully acknowledge that it was their colleagues at that meeting who rejected that proposition. So if there is scaremongering to be done, Madam Speaker, it is about Liberal governments, not about any action of the Labor Government.
Hospice - Acton Peninsula
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister for Health, Mr Berry, and concerns the siting of the hospice on Acton Peninsula. It is a different question from the one I asked during the last sittings of the Assembly. As members are aware, the site of the hospice has been relocated from its original position following agreement reached between the ACT Government and the National Capital Planning Authority. My question to the Minister is: Were the existing buildings on Acton Peninsula ever considered as options for housing the hospice? Further, what degree of consultation with the community occurred over the ACT Government's and the National Capital Planning Authority's latest choice of site?
MR BERRY: I will deal with the last issue first. There are some people concerned with what might happen on the Acton Peninsula who will never be happy unless we reopen the Royal Canberra Hospital in its former glory. Sadly, those people have to accept that we are not going back that way. It is in the past. As far as the hospice is concerned, there was an early position in relation to a site which was not acceptable to the NCPA. When I say "not acceptable" I am not suggesting in any way that there was a bunfight about the issue. They said that they did not like the site and I said, "Well, have you something else in mind?". They said, "As a matter of fact, yes, we have. Here it is". I said, "Well, that looks all right to me". I was quite - - -
Mr Kaine: That sounds like a fairly scientific decision making process.
Mr Cornwell: I thought that was the way that you conducted government, yes.
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