Page 2033 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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That was never the case. Mr Berry has never heard any member of this Government say that it was the case. He knows that it was never the case. And he has had the decency, on this one occasion at least, not to join the public band wagon that was started by the article in last week's Canberra Times. The fact of life, of course, is that the ACT Government will provide funding for that outside the hospital redevelopment program.
Mr Berry forgets, of course - and, I am sure, deliberately - that in the course of rearranging the range of services available in the ACT, such as the Jindalee Nursing Home, the QEII home for mothers and babies, et cetera, there are some capital gains to be made. They themselves will generate money towards the cost of some of those facilities. I will say no more than that at this stage. Obviously we have some way to go before we are actually able to sell either of those two sites that I have just mentioned, but they will certainly contribute towards the capital cost of providing a hospice. The recurrent cost, of course, will be met by the savings made in following the Kearney report recommendations of establishing one principal hospital and closing the present Royal Canberra Hospital North - savings of $8m a year. It will not cost anything like that to run those services.
Mr Speaker, although it embarrasses those opposite, we have to acknowledge that the ACT does stand to gain very handsomely from these arrangements. I am sure that when people see what is at stake here and when they see what advantages flow from these government plans they will be very pleased with what they have obtained.
Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, I request that any further questions be placed on the notice paper.
Vocational Training Authority
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I would like to provide the answers to questions which I previously took on notice.
The first is a question from Mr Berry from 1 May, when he asked about the Vocational Training Act and the provision for the appointment of a chief executive. He asked me whether the fact that the position had not been filled indicated a lack of support for the authority, and, if that was not the case, when the position would be filled.
Mr Speaker, the Vocational Training Act provides for the appointment by the head of administration of a public servant to be the chief executive of the Vocational Training Authority. The fact that there is no current appointment of a chief executive does not indicate a lack of support for that authority. Appropriate staff support
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