Page 4661 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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The essential elements of the final contract were agreed with Telecom and ratified by an exchange of letters prior to any installation work commencing. Some aspects of the contract are subject to further discussions. The most important of these concerns the number of locations for installation, which is still being determined by the Department of Urban Services. That will go on for some time, until we work out every last phone.
The technical performance standards to apply and the simplification of the tariff arrangements have now largely been resolved, and the official signing of the contract is programmed for 2 December.
The sharps hot line after hours is answered by the general emergency switchboard of Urban Services. This is a 24-hour service and the 24-hour operators are a mix of government employees and Telecom contracted staff. They receive after hours calls from the public on a wide variety of emergency issues, ranging from water mains to the sharps calls. The operators filter the calls and pass them on to the appropriate area of the department. In the case of the calls about syringes, the calls are passed to the waste management section of the city services group, who dispatch a trained staff member to collect and dispose of the syringes. To that extent, that is the level of their training.
Breast Cancer
MRS NOLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Berry in his capacity as Minister for Health. Mr Berry, the women's budget statement 1991-92 paper No. 1, at page 6, states:
The ACT will be participating in the National Program for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer.
During the Estimates Committee we were told that the Commonwealth had not been advised that the ACT would be participating. Has that now been rectified? If not, when will it be done, or is the statement in the women's budget statement incorrect?
MR BERRY: I thank Mrs Nolan for the question. The issue was raised in the Estimates Committee. I think that one of the questions that Mrs Nolan asked was whether the statement was false. Of course, it is not false. I think we said in the Estimates Committee that the process of securing funds for that program was still under consideration. I am not able to give her any advice in advance of that, but I am prepared to look into the matter further and talk to her again on the subject.
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