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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4086 ..


Rehabilitation of Offenders (Interim) Amendment Bill 2002 (No 2)

Debate resumed from 21 November 2002, on motion by Mr Quinlan:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR STEFANIAK (12.10): Mr Smyth actually has carriage of this, Mr Speaker, but I understand that we will be supporting it. He should be along soon. I've left a message for him and he should be on his way. I understand the bill makes a number of sensible amendments and my colleague, Mr Smyth, will elaborate further on those.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (12.11): It is good to see the house proceeding through its business quite rapidly. The opposition will be supporting this bill. It is mainly machinery, based on changing words such as "apprehend"to "arrest", for example, but there are three other points that I want to address.

Sections 42, 46 and 96 put in place important information and privacy provisions for victims of crime. These provisions are to ensure that victims' addresses are not revealed to offenders, and that victims are informed of offenders releases when offenders are on parole.

Sections 54, 58 and 62 give greater power to the board to arrest parole violators and revoke their parole. Sections 22 (1) and 22 (2) provide for the power to arrest offenders who have breached home detention orders. We believe that these elements are commonsense additions. Perhaps they should have been included from the outset. I thank the government for adding them to an otherwise excellent act.

Debate (on motion by Ms Tucker ) adjourned to a later hour.

Sitting suspended from 12.12 to 2.30 pm.

Questions without notice

Health executives

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, my question is for the Minister for Health, Mr Stanhope. Minister, it was recently announced that two executive positions, described as deputy chief executive positions, had been created in your department. The two positions are for an executive coordinator, strategic development, and an executive coordinator, territory-wide services. Please note, Minister, I am not talking about the position of chief nurse. What responsibilities will these two positions have? Can the minister advise the costs of both positions, including salary and on-costs such as superannuation? Have both of these positions been filled and, if not, when do you anticipate that they will be filled?

MR STANHOPE

: Thank you, Mr Smyth, for your question. Yes, indeed. Consequent on the significant restructuring that has occurred in the department of health, there has been, as members are aware, a complete rejigging of the executive structure in the department of health-indeed, within the health portfolio. There are two new positions of, essentially, deputy CEO. One of the positions is the executive coordinator,


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