Page 506 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 5 March 2008
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(2) further notes:
(a) the impact on working families in Canberra of rising interest rates—a direct result of inflationary pressures;
(b) the disappointing reaction by some banks to increase interest rates independent of the Reserve Bank’s official rates;
(c) the ACT Government’s increased focus on housing affordability to assist in meeting pressures on those seeking to enter the housing market and stay in it;
(d) the approach by the Chief Minister to the Prime Minister and other senior Federal Ministers about the disproportionate impact of announced and proposed cuts to Commonwealth Government operations on the ACT; and
(e) the ACT Government’s planned initiative to work in partnership with the Commonwealth, the Canberra Business Council, other employer organisations and employment agencies to absorb and ameliorate possible impacts of a further reduction in staff numbers at Commonwealth Public Service agencies based in the ACT.”.
(Time expired.)
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 12.26 to 2.30 pm.
Question time
Statement by Speaker
MR SPEAKER: Before I go to questions without notice, I will make some comment about some matters that Mr Smyth has raised with the Clerk—they have been passed on to me—in relation to a question of his which was responded to by Minister Barr.
The issues I see here are that, when I ask people to come to order and stay on the subject matter of the question, I expect them to do so. Mr Barr, I offer that as a warning. I would have been surprised, I must say, that if, in the course of the question, there were not a few barbs thrown from the opposition benches. I say to the members of the opposition: when I ask you to come to order and cease interjecting, I expect you to do so. These matters inevitably lead to some sort of disorder, which makes the management of this place a little bit more difficult.
Questions without notice
Hospitals—funding
MR SESELJA: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, you said yesterday that the Stanhope Labor government has “a plan” for the ACT’s health system and that it has “increased the health budget by 61 per cent”. You also said that
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