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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Tuesday, 24 August 2004) . . Page.. 4005 ..

It is my hope and the hope of the Liberal opposition that the government will respond to this in the course of the next two days so that on Thursday, during Assembly business, we can have a discussion to approve this variation, which will at last give some certainty to the Little Company of Mary.

But that, of course, will not be the end of the road for the planning approval process for the Little Company of Mary. I have been on the record on a number of occasions as being extremely critical of the delays that the Little Company of Mary has experienced in getting planning approval. My understanding is that if they had known at the outset just how convoluted this process would be they may not have started down this path and we would not be soon the recipients of their high quality care and accommodation.

This is a very important project for the elderly of the ACT and the elderly of Belconnen in particular. It has not been an easy path and I remain critical of the inaction of the government. This variation could have been before us very much sooner and we should not be dealing with it in the dying breaths of the Legislative Assembly. But I commend to members of the Assembly the report of the planning and environment committee and look forward to an expeditious response from the government.

Debate (on motion by Mr Corbell) adjourned to the next sitting.

Public Accounts—Standing Committee

Report 11

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (11.15): I present the following report:

Public Accounts—Standing Committee—Report 11—The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) with special reference to the Australian Capital Territory, dated 20 August 2004, together with a copy of the extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings.

I seek leave to move a motion authorising the report for publication.

Leave granted.

MR SMYTH: I move:

That the report be authorised for publication.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR SMYTH: I move:

That the report be noted.

Mr Speaker, this report is about a very topical subject, namely, the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The period in which the committee looked at this issue covered the federal government’s negotiations with the United States government on the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

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