Page 2482 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 June 2005
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$6.5 million, bringing it up to $20 million to rebuild Quamby to the level I was told. When I was told, “No, you can’t rebuild Quamby on that site, you need a new facility,” I went back to cabinet and won $40 million for Quamby. As well, we have an additional $4 million going into the existing Quamby to make the facility as best as we can make it for the time that we need to use it until the new facility is built.
At the same time, we have increased the resources of the Hindmarsh Education Centre. We have more organisations than ever going into this facility to make sure that the individual needs of children and young people are being met. That is not to say that there are not challenges that we still face, that we will still have to meet day-by-day as the group within Quamby changes and the needs within Quamby change. I am not ignoring those and I am not saying that the environment is problem free, nor am I saying that it meets the requirements of the Human Rights Act. I said that at the time and I have said that in estimates. There are some really difficult situations to manage in Quamby and credit should go to the staff and to the organisations that support our work for enabling us, as best as we can, to meet the needs of those children and young people.
In relation to the allegation of Mr Seselja that I misled the estimates committee, I strongly refute that, absolutely. I have my own little chronology that we can go through. The standing committee reported in August and there was the minor matter of the Fifth Assembly actually adjourning in late August, the caretaker period commencing, a new Assembly being elected, the Sixth Assembly, and the first sitting of that Assembly. Mr Seselja, when you are out there bagging me about nine months of inaction, you should just factor in about three months of there being no Assembly and no work done on this matter.
Mr Seselja has finally got it right and accepted that the government response to the Assembly was in February. I have heard him make the accusation numerous times that the government agreed to it in August. We agreed to it in February. My advice is that planning for the working group was under way during May, although I did not know that at estimates. My answer at estimates was correct. When I was asked a question at estimates about the working party I said, “I don’t know if there has been a working party established.” As to the work referred to about all the programs—I have tabled a list of 47 different organisations and programs going into Quamby—I said, “All of that work is being done.” All of that work was being done because the work that was being referred to was the programs and services going into Quamby. But I was very clear that I did not know if the working party had been established.
On advice from my department, I responded appropriately and in a timely fashion to the question that we had taken on notice. The answer to that question is factually correct, much as Mr Seselja does not like it. Mr Seselja asked me here a follow-up question which was actually different from the question that he asked at estimates and I answered it correctly. So I do not know at what stage I misled you or the estimates committee. I challenge you to prove it, now that you have made the accusation. I know that Mrs Dunne has FOI-ed all the material relating to the establishment of this infamous working party, which is meeting in relation to Quamby. You will get all that information and you will find out that my answers have been factually correct every single time and that there is no story behind it, Mr Seselja. I think the only thing you can take from it is a belief that the working party was not established in time. That is your belief.
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