Page 1099 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: That may be, but I do not put much store by that, Mr Connolly. Mr Speaker, Mr Connolly's question assumes that there is some lack of operation or some ineffectiveness in these working parties. He used the past tense, saying, "There were to have been vehicles for consultation", or words to that effect. He ignores the fact, deliberately probably, that there has already been, and is, a very effective process of consultation through those working parties. There is nothing notional about it; it has actually happened. The Government has actually been able to engineer an enormous degree of consultation through those 50 or so working parties. So there is nothing notional or futuristic about it.
The master control plan is part of the process of establishing the final shape of the hospital redevelopment. That process depends upon the full consultation process being carried through to the end. It obviously depends on everyone having the chance to express their views and to be fully heard. It therefore cannot be done early; it must wait until later in the process before it can be concluded and finalised. That is the case here, Mr Speaker. The master control plan will be released when the final process has produced all the consultation that is required to make its release appropriate.
It is also true, of course, that in any process like this there will be a number of bids. People will seek facilities that may or may not be obtainable at the end of the day, and the Government, of course, has to be responsible about what it can afford to fund. I must say that I have no objection to people making large bids for ample facilities and for high quality equipment. That is part of the general desire by people in our hospital system to create the best hospital system in the world. The Government might not be able to deliver the best hospital system in the world. It does not promise to do that, but it certainly hopes to achieve one of the best - if not the best - hospital systems in Australia.
Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, I request that if there are any penetrating questions from the other side they be put on the notice paper.
Financial Accounts
MR KAINE: Yesterday Mrs Grassby asked:
When will the 1989-90 audited financial statement for the entire ACT Government be available?
The answer is a very short one. The audit financial statements for the entire ACT Government will be available to the Auditor-General during this month of March, and will be published shortly after they are presented to him.
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