Page 2597 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Given that we have such high standards of medical equipment use in Australia, when equipment does not meet our standards no-one would want to buy it for medical use in Australia; but it is well and truly above the standard of equipment that is available in Vietnam. We have had lots of requests from other international aid groups asking could they have something for this country or that country. The fact that we have focused it all on the Vietnam project means that the Canberra contribution is now really meaning something, and a nursing hospital - the first university nursing course in Vietnam, I am told - some 100 kilometres from Hanoi has been the recipient of the bulk of the equipment. They are now training some 1,200 Vietnamese nurses a year. It is the first time there has been training in nursing, and those nurses are moving throughout the country with the skills they have gained using Canberra equipment. I am told that this is having a real impact on people-to-people relations and that the Canberra donation is well known in Vietnam in that region. For that reason, the decision that was made originally by Mr Berry, and strongly supported by me, to focus our donations on one project is, I believe, the right one.
Government Service - Appointments
MR DE DOMENICO: My question without notice is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, yesterday you denied that any union official had lobbied you for Mr Townsend not to be appointed Head of Administration. Today's Canberra Times quoted Mr Des Heaney of the AFMEU as saying:
People frequently express their views but no-one expects politicians to take a view and act on it just because one player expressed it.
Chief Minister, do you or your Government have any indication of what Mr Heaney was referring to when he made this comment?
MS FOLLETT: None whatsoever, Madam Speaker. I am not responsible for Mr Heaney's pronouncements, and if you look back over time you will realise that I could hardly take that position.
MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Chief Minister, which player expressed it and to whom in the Government?
MS FOLLETT: I suggest that the question be directed to Mr Heaney.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .