Page 28 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 May 1989
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CULTURAL FACILITIES
DR KINLOCH: I address a question to the Chief Minister in her role as the Minister responsible for the arts. Is the Minister aware that a consultant, Mr Murray Edmonds, has submitted a report concerning cultural facilities in the ACT, including the identification of perceived needs at section 19 in the heart of the city, and will the Minister assure the Assembly that the report will be released to the public forthwith?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Dr Kinloch for the question. Yes, I am aware that such a report has been commissioned and I undertake to the Assembly that it will be released this week.
MEDIA INQUIRIES OF DEPARTMENTS
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is directed to the Deputy Chief Minister. I refer the Minister to an article in Sunday's "Canberra Times" entitled "Searching the ACT election results for clues to the swing". The article says in part:
Mr Whalan, for example, has imposed a rule in his department that no officials are to answer media inquiries, however mundane. Until now, journalists have always been able to ring up to check facts with the experts, but now they must go through Mr Whalan's press secretary who of course has better things to do than answer mundane queries.
I ask the Minister: Is this report accurate? If so, is this Government policy in all departments? How does this policy sit with the Government's declared objective of open and accessible government?
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, I think that the accuracy of the report can be gauged by the fact that I do not even have a press secretary.
PUBLIC SERVICE
MR JENSEN: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Chief Minister. Is it true that, effective from 27 April 1989, a former first assistant secretary, Legislation and Legal Services Division, and formerly OIC Lands Branch, Mr Anthony Hedley, was compulsorily retired from the ACT Administration? If this is so, what was the reason for this retirement and what were the various components of the financial package that was attached to this compulsory retirement?
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