Page 714 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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Mrs Grassby: You wait. Just be careful.
Mr Collaery: On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mrs Grassby has just put a threat on the record. She said, "You wait". I wish to make it clear that I wish that to be in the Hansard.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Collaery.
Mrs Grassby: We are taking note of this.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Collaery: Mr Speaker, I have never read a newspaper in this house.
MR SPEAKER: You will have an opportunity if you claim to have been misrepresented, Mr Collaery. Please proceed, Mrs Nolan. They are not points of order, Mr Collaery.
Mrs Grassby: I do not think you have ever read a newspaper - can you?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby. Please proceed, Mrs Nolan.
Mrs Grassby: I am sorry, Mrs Nolan.
MRS NOLAN: Thank you, Mrs Grassby. And this we did, beginning in December when it was announced that the Alliance Government was committed to removing asbestos from all Canberra homes within four years, and that any funding negotiations with the Commonwealth would not delay the program. The Government's decision last month to finalise the 750-house contract puts the removal program firmly back on track and will enable our four-year completion objective to be met. When the removal program is fully operational up to 30 teams will be operating simultaneously and approximately 30 houses will be cleaned every four weeks. This will result in approximately 200 jobs being created with the contracts.
I think it is worth reminding members of the background to this particular issue. While accepting no legal liability, the Commonwealth ALP Government decided in October 1988 that for public health reasons the asbestos had to be removed. However, the Commonwealth imposed a funding formula under which the ACT was to be responsible for the first $10m, 50 per cent of the next $20m and one-third of all costs over $30m. I am not quite sure how the ACT Government was responsible for this in the first place and I firmly believe that it should have been a Commonwealth Government responsibility.
Within weeks of that announcement the Asbestos Branch had been established and a survey had been commenced of 65,000 houses built prior to 1980. At the time the extent of the
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