Page 3866 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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MADAM SPEAKER: Standing order 118(a) requires a minister to be directly relevant, so if you could come to the point off the question, Chief Minister.
MS GALLAGHER: I will if there is any time left. Going to the point of stress, yes, I would say that when the hospital is busy staff are under more stress. The hospital is a stressful environment at any time, and when the hospital is busy and beds are in short supply, there is an additional layer of stress, and that is why so much effort is being put in to minimise that stress and to support staff. One of those is the increase in beds, and Dr Gallagher’s point today was about additional beds. I will repeat in this place: when we came into power in 2001, 670 hospital beds were available. We now have 1,048 funded beds across the system—a 56 per cent increase against a population increase of only 17 per cent. And more beds are coming on line, so, no, it is not going to get worse. (Time expired.)
Asbestos—loose-fill insulation
MR COE: My question is to the Chief Minister regarding Mr Fluffy homes. Chief Minister, what analysis has the government undertaken as to how variation 306 will restrict redevelopment, whether the blocks be RZ1 or changed to a higher density but still in the residential zones?
MS GALLAGHER: It is likely that particular arrangements will need to be put in place for Mr Fluffy homes as it relates to a number of different pieces of legislation, not only planning but heritage and tree protection as well. We are currently working through those issues. Obviously the announcement by the commonwealth on Monday was prompt in the sense that it was announced without knowledge to us and, now that we have confirmation that a concessional loan is being arranged, we are putting in place the necessary work that needs to be done to ensure that we can minimise the overall net cost to the ACT community and deliver a fair and reasonable outcome to the Mr Fluffy homeowners. It is highly likely there will be a number of pieces of legislation that will need to come—
Mr Coe: On a point of order, Madam Speaker, on relevance. Whilst we appreciate hearing about the recent developments, the question was specifically: what analysis has the government undertaken? That has got no relevance whatsoever to Minister Abetz’s announcement.
MADAM SPEAKER: Your question was about draft variation 306?
Mr Coe: Yes.
MADAM SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. I would ask the Chief Minister to try to be directly relevant to the question about analysis around variation 306.
MS GALLAGHER: If I could, my answer—and I went to it very promptly—went to the work that was underway on a range of legislative frameworks, including planning, from which variation 306 evolved, and heritage and trees. There has been some early work done about changes that need to be incorporated but it is not simply around
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