Page 3529 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Obstetrics Beds
MR MOORE: My question is directed at Mr Berry, as Minister for Health, and follows some questions on hospital beds that Mr Humphries asked yesterday. Can Mr Berry tell us whether it is true that there is going to be a reduction of obstetrics beds at the Woden Valley Hospital from the planned 75 to 60?
Mr Kaine: "O" for obstetrics, Wayne.
MR BERRY: Yes, that is right. I do not have on me the exact detail on the number of beds in the obstetrics ward, Mr Acting Speaker. I will look into that matter and let Mr Moore know.
MR MOORE: I greatly appreciate that, Mr Acting Speaker; but I will ask a supplementary question. Is it then your concept, Mr Berry, that there will be a reduction in the number of planned obstetrics beds from those that were set out by Mr Humphries, now that you are in charge?
MR BERRY: I am not going to get involved in guesswork, Mr Acting Speaker.
Tourism Commission
MR JENSEN: My question is directed to the Chief Minister in her capacity as the Minister responsible for tourism. Did the Government complete a cost-benefit analysis of the decision to close both the Sydney and Melbourne offices? If not, why not - especially as the previous ALP Government, led by you, made a great splash about the opening of these centres at the time?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mr Jensen for the question. To respond briefly, in the first instance, to Mr Jensen's question: No, the Government did not conduct a cost-benefit study on the closure of the Melbourne and Sydney tourism centres. Nevertheless, Mr Acting Speaker, it is true to say that the commission itself has made a very close study of the value of both of those centres and, as I advised the Assembly in question time yesterday, it was the commission's view, which they conveyed to me, that neither the Sydney tourism office nor the Melbourne tourism office was really paying its way in terms of a marketing effort for the ACT.
I think I did advise the Assembly yesterday, but I will advise them again, that the rents in both of those areas were extremely high - nearly $160,000 in Melbourne and $200,000 in Sydney in the last financial year. Quite clearly, they would need to be adding a great deal of business to the Tourism Commission's effort to warrant
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .