Page 3856 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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strategy for Australia which is under joint development by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council and the Australian Water Resources Council. Madam Speaker, there will be six major research program areas within that CRC - - -
Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. I draw your attention to standing order 74, where ministerial statements are listed after question time. If the Chief Minister wishes to make a ministerial statement on this matter, I ask her not to do so in answer to a dorothy dixer but to do it, by leave, at the appropriate time in this session of this Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Kaine, for drawing my attention to that standing order. It is, of course, appropriate under standing order 118 that answers should be concise and confined to the subject matter. Of course, I have a problem in determining whether this answer is concise because it is not yet complete. "Concise" is very open-ended - - -
Mr Kaine: You can see the several typewritten pages before the Chief Minister, just as I can, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Excuse me, Mr Kaine. I would like to finish. Having had my attention drawn to this matter and given that it is already a quarter to three, I will allow the Chief Minister to finish her answer, but perhaps she could take this concern into consideration when she calls the end of question time. Would you like to continue, Ms Follett.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I do not believe that I have ever given an overly long answer in this chamber, and I am not doing so today. I have been asked an excellent question about the significance of a particular achievement by the ACT, and it is a disgrace that these people here are not prepared to listen to it.
Mr Kaine: Madam Speaker, I object to being told that it is a disgrace to draw the Chief Minister's attention to standing orders. I would like her to withdraw that. It is not a disgrace at all. It is a reasonable thing for a member to do.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, I understand your concern, but I do not believe that a standing order has been transgressed. Please continue, Ms Follett.
MS FOLLETT: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was, in fact, drawing very close to the conclusion of my answer to Ms Ellis's question. To finish up on the third of these CRCs, I think it is a very important contribution to improved understanding and much more professional management of Australia's water environment, and of course it will do a great deal to identify what is necessary to maintain the health and the ecological sustainability of our rivers. Issues such as algal blooms, which have been a significant difficulty recently, will be examined. That will provide a great deal of guidance for water resource assessment and planning and will avoid future water problems. That third CRC will be established at the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre located in Albury, but there will be research nodes. One of those research nodes will be at the University of Canberra; the other will be at Monash. Madam Speaker, I think that this is a very significant development for the ACT and one which all members should be pleased to hear about.
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