Page 11 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 22 February 1994
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opportunity to hold various pre-Olympic sporting competitions and training activities, and to develop our other international athletes. Just recently I had the pleasure of launching our own academy's campaign for the year. I said then that the major job for us is to develop the academy away from the shadow of the Institute of Sport. There is much work to be done there. It is about the preparation of our young athletes for passage into the institute and to those Olympic Games when they occur in the year 2000. There is some great work being done there.
Canberra's participation in the 2000 Olympic Games as a host of the preliminary rounds of competition is also an important area which we will follow through on. I expect that there will be some Australian Capital Territory stars among the contingent of athletes who compete in Sydney in the year 2000, and that is something that I know that, prospectively, we can all be very proud of. The committee has also formed several subcommittees to involve ACT sporting and community groups in considering these and in identifying other opportunities. So it is not just the committee; it is about involving as much as possible of the community that has a contribution to make in the development of the better interests of the Territory as we lead up to those games. The committee and its subcommittees will meet monthly to produce an action plan for consideration by the Government in late August 1994. I suspect, Madam Speaker, that we will have some good news for members on that action plan as we set ourselves up for the run in to those Olympic Games.
John James Hospital
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Minister for Health. I refer the Minister to the construction of new obstetric beds at John James Hospital pursuant to permission granted by the ACT Government in 1990. Is the Minister aware that the Department of Health has told the hospital that, notwithstanding that earlier permission, the policy of the department now opposes the building of new obstetric beds in Canberra? Does the Minister know that work on the new beds at John James is well advanced - indeed, it is due for completion in September this year - and that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been committed already to the project? Will the Minister guarantee unequivocally that the hospital will be able to open the beds it is building, pursuant to permission from the Government that it has received?
MR BERRY: I think it is very important to go over the history of the permission that was given to John James Hospital. It was given by Mr Humphries. Therefore it is not odd that he should raise the question now, trying to justify a position which really was not tested against the needs of the Territory in those days. One of the questions which have not been examined is how it will better deliver obstetric services here in the ACT, and they are issues about which I am very concerned.
Mrs Carnell: But it is not public money.
MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says, "It is not public money". All she is concerned about is the money side of it, not the service delivery to women in the ACT. What we are about is providing quality obstetric services in the ACT, and we intend to make sure that we continue down that path. There is no guarantee
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