Page 2937 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007

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which the data centre would be feasible were there this security of power supply. So the gas-fired power station depends very much on the capacity to get an achieved business case in relation to the data centre that stacks up.

It was in that context that the ACT government was approached and was prepared, as a very significant partner or an interested partner in the possibility of the construction of both the power station and the data centre, to identify land as one of those aspects of a case that ActewAGL and its partners can now go to the market with to say, “Yes, this is our proposal. It is backed by the ACT government. Land has been identified. An option has been granted. If the business case develops, then the land will be granted.” (Time expired.)

Mr Stanhope: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.

Supplementary answer to question without notice

Hospitals—bed numbers

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, I have some additional detail in relation to the cost of beds. The advice on which I relied and the notes have been provided to me. I just provide this additional information for members. The per day cost of a hospital bed within the ACT as of 2005-06 varies from $600 per day per bed to $3,500 per day per bed, depending on the type of bed. For example, an ICU bed costs $3,500 a day per day to operate. Sub-acute beds, or some classification of sub-acute beds, cost $600 per day per bed.

On the last costings available to me from the Department of Health, an acute bed—which is the promise that the Liberal Party has made and the demand that it makes of us—is $1,460 per bed per day. Those are 2005-06 costings, which equate to the figure that I have been quoting and the figure which the Liberal Party has promised to expend. That is the cost. They are 2005-06 costings. Through recent changes in wage structures within the hospital, those costings are a little out of date. The sum would probably be just a little bit higher were we to take the latest figures available.

In the context of the last costings available in the ACT, the promise which the Liberal Party has made—and the demand which it makes—is costed at $53.4 million. When you take into account wage rises and cost increases over the years since those costings were made, it would be more than that. So it is a $54 million plus promise that you have made. That is the cost.

Papers

Mr Speaker presented the following papers:

Study trip—Report by Mr Seselja MLA—Liberal Party Federal Council 2007 and the Menzies Research Centre State Policy Conference—1 to 3 June 2007.

Travel report—Non-Executive Members—Sixth Assembly, up to and including 30 September 2007.


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