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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1290 ..


MR MOORE: I am flabbergasted that Mr Berry, who has negotiated many agreements, would have an attitude like that. It is an agreement that was negotiated and voted on by the vast majority of nurses and agreed to. That having been said, the government will always look at conditions-

Mr Berry: It was this pay rise or none.

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Berry! You have asked your question and your supplementary question.

MR MOORE: I can see the silly smile that Mr Berry is putting on there, but the reality is that an agreement is when two people actually agree on a position and it is signed off, voted on and agreed to. That having been said, of course the government will watch very carefully the issues associated with FBT.

Junction Youth Health Centre

MR RUGENDYKE: My question is also to the health minister. Minister, if the proposed injecting clinic were to be located in the QEII hospital site, as recommended by the relevant committee, what impact would that be likely to have on the Junction Youth Health Centre in that building? I did mention this matter briefly to Mr Moore earlier.

MR MOORE: I thank Mr Rugendyke for indicating briefly earlier that he would be asking me this question. The Junction Youth Health Centre is being run at the moment by a peak body which normally would not be a service provider. It was always the intention that that would be a temporary measure, that the service would then go through the normal process of calling for expressions of interest and being placed elsewhere. The junction will be moved from that site. It is entirely inappropriate for a youth health centre to be located with a supervised injecting room and we will look at locating it in a way that, hopefully, works much more closely with the services that Mr Stefaniak funds.

We are always looking to find ways to get a cooperative arrangement between different departments, particularly when we are funding similar sorts of things and there is overlap. Mr Smyth and I met only just recently on housing in this regard. Mr Stefaniak and I talk quite regularly about how we can get better cooperation in our services. I think that this provides us with an opportunity to provide a better youth service-one that provides the normal youth services and includes health as part of those services. Getting a coordinated service would be the best outcome, but we will look at it and see what we can do with it.

MR RUGENDYKE: As part of my supplementary question, I say to the minister that it has been reported in the media that the building is to be refurbished to accommodate a shooting gallery. If it is the case that it needs refurbishment, why was it not refurbished for a youth health centre?

MR MOORE

: My recollection is that it was not refurbished for the junction when it was established there. I hope the refurbishment will be minimal. We certainly need to get a sterile environment for the supervised injecting room. It was always in the budget that there will be some minor capital works to be able to deal with the stainless steel facilities


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