Page 1571 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 12 August 1992
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than were originally permitted. Shell has the site in question, and they propose to move their existing station at Dickson to the new site. So there will be no additional service station in Dickson. Indeed, I understand that Shell propose to seek variations to their existing lease there so that their existing service station can have some other function.
Non-Government School Funding
MR CORNWELL: My question is also addressed to Mr Wood, wearing his hat of education. Mr Wood, is it your intention to table in this Assembly the report of the inquiry into funding of ACT non-government schools, known as the Berkeley report, so that the matter can be debated? If not, why not?
MR WOOD: That is a good question, Madam Speaker. There is no reason why I should not. I have not taken those steps so far. You would have caught up with the fact that, as soon as I received it, I authorised it for public release; I did not sit on it. It is freely available to the community. There is nothing stopping you raising any debate on it tomorrow - nothing at all.
Mr Humphries: Isn't that your job? You are the Minister.
MR WOOD: Let me make it quite clear. Sometimes people such as your Government have sat on reports. I put that report out publicly straightaway. They seem to be making snide remarks behind you about how I do not want it in the Assembly. You can ask any question, you can raise any debate, - based on that report. There is nothing stopping you. If you lack the initiative to do it, it is your responsibility, not mine. Nevertheless, since it was a report commissioned by government, I think it is probably a reasonable thing that I should table it formally, and I will do so.
Water Fluoridation
MR STEVENSON: My question of Mr Connolly concerns the corrosive properties of the fluoride compound that is added to water supplies. Has any testing been carried out for possible corrosive effects on steam and hot-water utilisation equipment, boilers, steam-heating radiators, auto radiator systems, et cetera? If so, what results, if any, have come out of that?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Stevenson, who some time ago gave us an indication that he would be interested in this issue. Fluoride at the concentration of one milligram per litre - which is the concentration which the Assembly has finally settled on, stopping our "in again, out again, in at half the price, back in again" approach of the past - is a concentration which is very stable. The advice that I have from ACTEW engineers is that it is chemically non-reactive with the materials used to make the equipment that Mr Stevenson has mentioned and is not known to engineers in ACTEW to cause problems.
Fluoride is not used up in the water supply system, which is demonstrated by the fact that samples analysed at the treatment plants give the same concentration as those at the extremities of distribution. In other words, the fluoride remains present in the water and is not being pulled out and plating somewhere.
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