Page 2934 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014

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MS GALLAGHER: I thank Dr Bourke for the question. The interesting thing is that both of the walk-in centres combined are now seeing more patients than they have ever seen on the hospital grounds. In particular, Tuggeranong is being highly utilised by the local community, seeing more than 70 patients a day pretty much since the day it opened. We are very pleased with that. At the moment, though, it is not having any relieving of pressure from the Canberra Hospitals.

Presentations at Calvary were reasonably high in July, up in August and are somewhat down in September. So perhaps the Belconnen walk-in centre is taking some pressure off that emergency department, but time will tell. At this point in time they are certainly being well used by the community, which ticks off the main driver of opening that service. But in terms of relieving pressure off the ED, those presentations continue to grow at Canberra Hospital.

Transport—light rail

MR COE: My question is to the Minister for Capital Metro. Minister, does the $783 million price tag for light rail include the $33.9 million which has been provided to the Capital Metro Agency since 2011-12?

MR CORBELL: No, it does not.

MR COE: Minister, is the $9.8 million budgeted for staff costs at the Capital Metro Agency until 2018 included in the $783 million cost estimate?

MR CORBELL: Could I ask the member to repeat the question?

Mr Coe: The question was: minister, is the $9.8 million budgeted for staff costs at the Capital Metro Agency until 2018 included in the $783 million cost estimate?

MR CORBELL: No, it is not. To be very clear, the capital delivery cost figure that the government released on Monday, which was $610 million plus a $173 million contingency, is the capital delivery cost for the construction of the project. It is not the costs associated with the day-to-day running of the Capital Metro Agency.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Wall.

MR WALL: Minister, was the cost of producing promotional items such as foam trains, drink bottles and videos included in the $783 million cost estimate?

MR CORBELL: No, it was not, and the government has never said otherwise.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Wall.

MR WALL: Minister, does the $783 million cost estimate include provision for an average cost blowout of 4.3 per cent as stipulated in the government’s partnership framework?

MR CORBELL: The business case is consistent with the partnerships framework.


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