Page 1760 - Week 06 - Thursday, 19 May 1994
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Belconnen Bus Interchange
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question is addressed to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Lamont. I gave Mr Lamont notice several hours ago that I would be asking this question today. I refer to the Gazette of 16 March, in which contract No. 16807 is listed. This contract is with the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation for passenger amenity improvements to the value of $10,280 at the Belconnen bus interchange. My question of the Minister is: Can he inform the Assembly of the nature of the passenger amenity improvements?
MR LAMONT: I thank the member for her question. I appreciate the advance notice so that I am able to more fully expand upon contract No. 16807. Madam Speaker, the Government and, indeed, my department, as announced already, are committed to upgrading these substantial public facilities. This contract covers the design documentation and construction supervision for pavement upgrading in the interchange. The platform pavement at Belconnen interchange has been uplifted in parts due to tree roots and has suffered general deterioration due to age. This has provided unacceptable surfaces for passengers, especially for the elderly and for mothers and babies, particularly for mothers with babies in strollers. Following design work, a further contract will lead to the repair of the pavement and the removal of the offending trees and their replacement with more suitable trees. Passengers will enjoy enhanced safety and amenity through the work. It is expected that the contract for reconstruction will be awarded before the end of June.
Ambulance Service
MR WESTENDE: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Health. The health activity report shows that in the March quarter the number of calls that were responded to by the ACT Ambulance Service in less than 10 minutes fell significantly in comparison with previous quarters. From the graph on page 7 of the report, I estimate a fall of about 5 per cent. Can the Minister explain how this life-threatening drop-off in the response time has occurred and what he is doing to ensure that this trend does not continue?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I will take advice on that and report back to the Assembly. It could well mean that the incidents that the Ambulance Service was responding to were a bit further away, so that it took more than 10 minutes to get there. From the briefings that I have received to date, I have certainly not been conscious of problems of a decrease in service in the Ambulance Service. Indeed, one of the remarkable things I have noticed in my wanderings about the hospital system and talking, both formally and informally, with everybody from the AMA, every other professional group and every union is that, while in the nature of things there is a tendency for everybody to have a whinge about everybody else, the one group that everybody heaps praise on is the Ambulance Service. The view of the doctors and the view of the nurses - the view of everybody - is that we have an outstanding Ambulance Service which is doing its job very well in the ACT, better than services anywhere else in Australia. I will take on Mr Westende's question and get him a sensible answer.
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