Page 2607 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 1991
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MR BERRY: I must admit that I heard on the media that I was going to be vigorously pursued on this matter, so I made sure that I had a brief prepared on a possible question. Mrs Grassby, strangely enough, has asked the very question this possible Assembly question answers. This is really part of the mess we have been left to clean up after the former Government, and Mrs Grassby rightly raises the question with me. The interesting part about it is that, while Mr Humphries was out there in the media, kicking it along, Mrs Grassby was busily working away and getting it fixed through the relevant department.
The possum excreta problem is history now; but, having been asked the question, I have to use this brief because there has been a bit of work done in putting it together. The problem of possums in the ceiling of the Kambah Health Centre has, unfortunately, been a long-term one. So, it really was the Government before us. You handed this over to us. How dare you complain, Gary Humphries!
Mr Duby: We set it up.
MR BERRY: It probably was one of those traps - a booby trap. The health centre staff, and they are the ones we ought to be concerned about, are currently exploring with the parks and conservation branch possible avenues to deal with the problem. The advice is that exclusion from the roof ceiling space is the only effective way of dealing with possums. You have to get them out, Gary. You should have gone out there and dealt with this. A number of measures have been adopted, including contractors who have been employed to set traps so that the possums can be held while the holes in the roof are plugged. I assume that that means they will be let go later. Also, work has been done on damage to the ceiling. That was probably in relation to what the possums left behind.
Possums are a permanent feature of suburban ACT, and they were a permanent feature when your Government was in. The previous policy of trapping and releasing possums in another territory has proved ineffective, as other possums move in - listen to this - to gain access to roofs previously occupied. So, you must plug the holes. The Board of Health appointed by the former Government is in the process of reassigning the Kambah Health Centre to Urban Services - so it soon will not be my responsibility; you will have to complain to somebody else - since Community Health Services is being relocated to Tuggeranong. Of course, the building is still occupied by private health care tenants. I am confident that the problem can be solved with the help of experts.
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