Page 881 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2005

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reported in the Canberra Times article, relates to Ulysses members wearing rockers—a rocker is a badge in the shape of a part-circle which is sewn on the jacket and turns up above the club’s badge or logo. Police intelligence indicates that Rebels members believe they should be the only motorcyclists to wear rockers. It is seen as an insult by motorcycle gangs to wear rockers in a rival gang’s territory. We know that now. Protection of a motorcycle gang’s territory by its members is of paramount importance and is consistent among most motorcycle gangs.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister’s time has expired.

Rural leases

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Planning, Mr Corbell. In June 2004, the minister was censured for persistently and wilfully misleading the Assembly. Yet on 9 December 2004 he told members in a debate about rural leases in the Molonglo Valley that “the full rights to the leases were actually purchased by the commonwealth in the seventies as well.” We all know that the land in question has been leasehold since the end of the World War 1 when the leases were issued under the soldier settlement scheme. When will the minister own up to this further misleading of the Legislative Assembly and correct the record?

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, withdraw that. There is a clear imputation there and you should withdraw it.

MRS DUNNE: I withdraw the imputation and ask: when will the minister own up to the gross inaccuracy and correct the record?

MR CORBELL: I am advised that the remainder of my comments are adequate. I have clarified the record in relation to one comment I made, and I did that earlier this week, as is appropriate for me to do. The issues around these leases are technical and complex and I did make an error, and I corrected the record. But, as far as I am advised, the remainder of my comments are accurate.

MRS DUNNE: Why didn’t the minister’s correction contain an apology to the Assembly, as former practice requires?

MR CORBELL: I clarified my comments in so far as they may have been misconstrued. That is the appropriate course for me to take, and I did that.

Aged care—intermittent care program

MS PORTER: My question is directed to the Minister for Health. This week the ACT and commonwealth governments launched a pilot program for intermittent care. Can the minister tell the Assembly about the program and how it will benefit the ACT?

MR CORBELL: This week I was pleased to launch, in conjunction with the commonwealth government and the commonwealth Minister for Ageing, the honourable Julie Bishop, a new program to help older people who require additional support to remain in, or return to, their own homes following hospitalisation.


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