Page 3419 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 13 October 1993
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Hospital Services
MR DE DOMENICO: My question without notice is also to the Minister for Health, and I refer to his answer to the Leader of the Opposition's question. Minister, you suggested that you have allowed funding for the same admissions as last year. Is that correct?
Mr Berry: Yes.
MR DE DOMENICO: What will you do, and what will happen, if more than 50,500 people get sick and turn up at a hospital?
MR BERRY: Madam Speaker, Mr De Domenico gets it wrong again. It was not me; it was the Treasurer who provided the funding. So you are wrong there. The question is highly speculative, Madam Speaker, and is therefore out of order.
Fire Danger
MR WESTENDE: My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Given the current warm and windy weather, which is the norm for Canberra at this time of the year, and given the fact that there is heavy backgrowth from previous years, is the Minister aware of the grave fire danger in the Territory to homes which back onto nature reserves, as well as the grave danger fire causes to the Territory's ecosystem in the event of an outbreak of fire? Furthermore, what is the Minister's policy on clearing areas in the Territory immediately adjacent to the rear and side fences of homes backing onto nature reserves? What is the Minister's policy on protecting the Territory's ecosystem with regard to nature reserves, especially those that are close to urban areas?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, it is Fire Awareness Week and it is appropriate that Mr Westende raises a question concerning fires. If it is not hot, it is getting that way, and blustery.
Mr Connolly: Yes, a bit like the Opposition, really - hot and blustery.
MR WOOD: Indeed, Mr Connolly. Cool sometimes, though. I cannot be specific about every reserve. There is a general policy - and I want to get some detail on just what areas - that there is a strip cleared between the backs of houses and reserves, but we have so many nature reserves in Canberra that I do not want to guarantee that that applies in absolutely every instance. There certainly is a policy of mowing on the margins around Canberra. It is an important policy. Given the increasing area to be mown and the tough budget, I think the people who organise and do the mowing in the ACT do a brilliant job to see that so much more is done. They do it within a very tight budget. They have done it very well. In view of the seriousness of your question, Mr Westende, I think it is better if I come back and report on those areas where perhaps it is not always possible to do that. I think that is the best way to approach your question.
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