Page 4026 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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The area in which I am alleged to have misled the Estimates Committee occurred on the morning of 8 October, at page 751 of the transcript. We were talking about child-care places and we were talking about new places. It is important that the entire passage be set down. Mr Duby has selectively quoted the question and my answer as though it were a single question and answer, whereas it is apparent from the transcript, to anyone who looks at the transcript, that we were going through a process. What we were talking about was additional child-care positions which had been created. Mr Jensen said:
I am interested to know too the numbers of additional staff employed to carry out the licensing of those new places in 1991.
I said:
Do you want a geographic breakdown of them, Mr Jensen?
Mr Jensen said:
Yes, please. And in the budget papers on page 133, you refer to 80 new child care places being established.
So, again, the new places being established, the question is: Do we need additional staff? Mr Jensen continued:
Will there be any changes in the number of staff employed in licensing related functions in the children's day care services section in 1991/92?
I said:
No, no. And indeed, in all administrative areas, more efficiencies are being sought throughout the service.
Mr Speaker, in the context of "Will we need additional staff to perform an additional function?", the answer was, "No, no. In all areas we will be having more efficiencies". I interpret that to mean that we do not need additional staff, which was the original question asked. We were pursuing the question of whether, because there were additional functions, we needed additional staff. The answer was, "No, no. In all areas we can do it more efficiently". Mr Jensen was pursuing this, I might say, quite vigorously, and he asked a very sensible next question. I said, "No, we do not need additional staff", and he pursued me. He said:
So you are confident that you will be able to establish and license and supervise those additional 80 new child care places with the same staff you already have at the moment; is that correct?
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