Page 3128 - Week 10 - Thursday, 18 October 2007
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Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Sitting suspended from 12.27 to 2.30 pm.
Questions without notice
Emergency Services Agency—funding
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the minister for emergency services. Minister, on 30 August this year you were asked a question without notice on the budget outcome of the Emergency Services Agency. The question was asked after you had said earlier:
The ESA came in on budget this financial year … It was on budget for the first time in three years.
Minister, we know that the actual outcome for the agency was that it overspent for the third consecutive year, this time by $3 million. We know this because the agency sought funds from the Treasurer’s advance. In your reply to the question, however, you said:
The money was not required.
In fact, the reason that the additional funds were not required was that “the associated costs were able to be managed by the department”. Minister, why did you provide incorrect information to the Assembly on 30 August?
MR CORBELL: I did not, Mr Speaker.
Health—oral and maxillofacial surgery
MRS BURKE: My question is to the Acting Minister for Health, Mr Corbell. Minister, have you approached any oral and maxillofacial specialist surgeons with a view to establishing a dedicated unit for access by the general public at the Canberra Hospital? If not, why not?
MR CORBELL: Since I have been acting minister, no, I have not.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mrs Burke?
MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, will you therefore now give a commitment to this Assembly and to the people of Canberra that this unit will be established by 1 December 2007? If not, why not?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mrs Burke for the question. It is a very simplistic ask, but it is like everything that we hear from Mrs Burke: she always seeks to couch these questions in simplistic terms.
I have explained the circumstances that the ACT government is facing in relation to the provision of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Canberra Hospital. We are reliant upon the consent and the agreement of the surgical specialists involved.
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