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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 2 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 422 ..


Ms Carnell: How much did we charge him?

MR SMYTH: I understand that there was no charge, because we believe that government should be honest, open, frank and free.

Mr Corbell: I raise a point of order on the grounds of relevance. I asked about the independence of the report. That is what the Minister should be answering.

MR SPEAKER: The Minister is answering the question and nobody else, thank you.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I believe that due process has been followed. The discussion paper we have put out is a document that is worthy of discussion and that the public have had their opportunity to comment on, and we will respond in due time.

MR CORBELL: I ask a supplementary question. For the record, Mr Speaker, does the Minister deny that the discussion paper on rural residential development prepared by TBA Planners was massaged to be favourable to the Government's position on rural residential development, or does the Minister still maintain that it is an independent study, as he outlined to the Assembly on 29 October last year?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I think all here would remember that the Assembly voted to support rural residential development. We have had a process. I believe that it is an independent study and that the process here has been followed. The process of departments dealing with consultants in this has produced an independent study, yes.

Canberra Injectors Network

MR KAINE: My question is to the Chief Minister as Acting Minister for Health. Chief Minister, I refer to the article on the front page of the Canberra Times on 8 March, where it is noted that the organisation, the abbreviation of which was ACTIV, was closed when a review found serious irregularities and anomalies in its financial management. I can go on about who did the review and why if you wish. This article also says that the Chief Minister, who was then the Minister for Health, was well aware of the contents of that report. We are also told that the new organisation, Canberra Injectors Network, which is headed by the same person who was the coordinator for ACTIV when their funding was discontinued, is now going to go ahead. Can the Chief Minister explain to me why she is going to approve funding for an organisation that has done nothing, apparently, but change its name and that less than two years ago was found to be the perpetrator of serious irregularities and anomalies in its financial management?

MS CARNELL

: Mr Speaker, I do not believe that ACTIV League was actually found to be guilty of anything two years ago. ACTIV League was a program within ADD Inc. I think it is important to remember that the ACTIV League was actually part of ADD Inc. ADD Inc. provided ACTIV League with financial and administrative support. The ACT


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