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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 3304 ..

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (5.38): The government will be supporting Ms Tucker's motion today with an amendment. I will move that amendment now. I move the amendment circulated in my name:

The amendment simply acknowledges that the report was commissioned by the alcohol and drug task force, not by the government. The report has not been presented to the government. I became familiar with the report only as of this morning when I was made aware that Ms Tucker would be moving this motion and I asked to see a copy of it so that I could understand what she was talking about.

I am quite happy to allow the task force to arrange to release this report. I will be indicating to the task force that this report should be released. I was just concerned to ensure that the Assembly did not put a community task force in the position where it was being told what to do. I think that it is reasonable that the report be released and I will be indicating to the task force that I believe that it should be released. I think that the task force itself will be happy to agree to that course of action but, given that the task force may not be able to consider this motion of the Assembly until after the end of this week, I am seeking to omit the timeframe requirement.

I think that the process to date has been very positive for the alcohol and other drugs task force. The series of community consultations that were held only last week, one with indigenous Canberrans and one with non-indigenous Canberrans, was very positive. I think that, for the first time, we will have a very strong collaborative and community-based drug strategy coming out of the work of this task force and the work that has informed the task force's deliberations.

The government will be supporting the proposition on the basis of support for my amendment.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (5.40): The opposition is pleased that Mr Corbell has agreed with the motion as put forward by Ms Tucker. It is important that community groups and individuals which respond to the call of either the government or a community task force for information do get the feedback and see the results of their work. I thank Ms Tucker for bringing forward the motion and thank the minister for ensuring that the community will get to see in this case the fruits of their labour.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Availability of Canberra's public hospital waiting list figures

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (5.41): I move: