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It has been pushed by the Federal Government. Mrs Carnell has folded under pressure, has accepted deadlines put to her by the Commonwealth and has admitted, in effect, that the special financial support provided by the Commonwealth to the ACT was provided against the background of the demolition of the buildings on the Acton site and the absence of plans in relation to Kingston.

The community would be very uneasy about the arrangements which have been undertaken in relation to these two important sites. I accept Mrs Carnell's view that they are important sites. I do not accept her view - - -

Mrs Carnell: So, why did you do nothing?

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell interjects, “Why did you do nothing?”. If you had been listening just a moment ago, you would have heard Ms Follett indicate to you what our intentions were. Our very clear intentions were that there were to be health facilities on that site. You may say that providing a hospice for the people of the ACT on that site amounted to doing nothing. I know that you have always been antagonistic to the hospice and it has always been your intention to get rid of it. The fact of the matter is that we did something. We reused the building there. We recycled a perfectly good building. We made an environmentally sound decision to put in facilities which would provide services to the people of the ACT, and we would have continued with that process. We also put on that site the child-care centre.

Mr Humphries: It was already there.

MR BERRY: You had better check your history. No services were being provided, Mr Humphries; they are now. Those are the facts. A child-care centre is not there unless it is providing the services. It began providing services under Labor. Get used to it.

Mr Humphries: Under us as well.

MR BERRY: That was before you closed the hospital, Mr Humphries. The facts of this matter would disturb the community. They deserve to have their recently elected representatives, who have committed themselves to the committee process, closely examine this matter out in the open and ensure that there is nothing to be disturbed about. Right now I am sure that they would be disturbed about a lot - I would be - given the sorts of things that have occurred behind the scenes. We have been trying to get some information about consultation which has occurred in relation to this matter. The quality of the advice we have been given is poor; it is dreadful. It is now very clear that there has been no consultation. Mrs Carnell, in her claims that there has been consultation, relies on her version of history that everybody down there knew that they were going be there for only a little while. As far as Labor was concerned, the hospice thought they were going to be there for a long time. The child-care centre thought they were going to be there for a long time. I do not think any of the community groups thought they were going to be abandoned either, Mr Speaker.

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