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MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much. No, it has not changed. I am sure that you would be aware that all of the organisations on Acton have been approached and have been spoken to, at departmental level and, in many cases, from my office directly. What we have is a situation where all of those groups, as I have already said, were well aware that they were on a short-term lease.

Mr Berry: They were not.

MRS CARNELL: If they were not aware, Mr Berry, why did they not have leases at all?

Mr Berry: Where is the lease for the child-care centre? Will you table that?

MRS CARNELL: Why did they not have leases at all? A number of services, such as the renal dialysis unit, were operating out of Acton Peninsula. We all know - well, I assume that you know, but maybe you do not know - that there is a proposal already for the renal dialysis unit to be located in the Moore Street health building after that site has been refurbished. As we know, a number of the other groups are there on a temporary basis. What this gives us an opportunity to do, something that you do not seem to want to do, is look for better outcomes for the future; look at better approaches, not the fifth floor of an ageing building. They could not spend any money doing up their building because they simply did not have leases, which did not make any of them very happy. This way we can come up with a solution that is better for the people they service. That will be the approach of this Government - looking for ways to improve something, not just wanting it to stay exactly the same; not just wanting a situation where any decision that is just a little bit hard will not be made, as we saw over the last four years.

Mr Berry: Will you table the lease for the child-care centre?

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Berry! You will have a chance to ask a question in due course.

Acton Peninsula

MS HORODNY: Mr Speaker, I address my question without notice to the Chief Minister. Will the Chief Minister make a commitment to this Assembly that no further negotiations with the Commonwealth on this issue will take place, nor demolition of existing buildings such as Sylvia Curley House, which you have just mentioned in response to Ms Follett's question, before the Planning and Environment Committee, on which I sit, brings down its report?

MRS CARNELL: I can guarantee that no demolition will take place, because I have already given you the undertaking that no contracts to enter into demolition will take place. It is on the basis that we are not going to demolish without contracts. I think I have already answered that question. I think it is absolutely essential that we continue negotiations with the Commonwealth to sort out the actual extent of the agreement that has already been entered into. Something that has to be understood here is that there is an agreement in place - not a pretend agreement, but a real one. Letters have been exchanged. They constitute a legally binding agreement. From here, what is essential, I would have assumed, is for this Assembly and for the committee to get the details of that proposal spelt out now.


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