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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2920 ..

Mr Kaine: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. If members want to have a little chat, could you ask them to do it out in the lobbies?

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. The Chief Minister is having enough difficulty with her throat without being drowned out, even by extraneous chatting. That is what the lobbies are for. Use them, please.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I thank those opposite for accepting that it is a bit hard for me to speak today. Mr Speaker, I believe, as I know members of the Assembly do, that incubators are important; but they must not be abused. I believe that with these three conditions for the John Knight Centre that will be the case, and when leases come up for renewal in the other business incubator sites similar conditions will be put in place. Again I state that the leases entered into by the previous Government really did not have any of those stipulations in place, so it is very difficult to enforce those sorts of conditions. Canberra Business Centre, CBC, have indicated that they are willing to accept these three conditions and to ensure that they are complied with in the future.

MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, it seems to me that in respect of the two older leases you have indicated that the Canberra Business Centre is prepared to consider changing its rules to meet the conditions that you are setting for the new one. Does that mean that the businesses that are beyond incubation and that are currently in the incubators will be expected to move shortly?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, as the current leases that are in place do not give the Government any power to require that to happen, it really needs to happen in cooperation with the CBC. We are having those discussions with the CBC. It is not appropriate for businesses that are quite viable and quite profitable to be in incubation centres in the long term, and I believe that CBC is interested in sensible negotiations on this. In other words, over time, that will happen. Hopefully, it will be a short time.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, my question without notice is to the Chief Minister in her capacity as Minister for Health. Chief Minister, yesterday you tabled the monthly activity reports for the Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital for the months of June and July this year. The June activity report for the Canberra Hospital shows that in 1996-97 the Canberra Hospital treated 865 fewer patients than in 1995-96. Considering the extra $38.6m in the health budget for 1996-97, the extra $4.2m quoted in this year's budget papers as extra money transferred to health, and the $6.8m extra expenses in health quoted in last week's financial management report, why were fewer patients treated this year?

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