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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 410 ..

MRS CARNELL: As Ms McRae probably does not realise, Jindalee Nursing Home was actually losing substantial amounts of money in the ACT when the decision to sell the nursing home was taken. Ms McRae, I should say, probably is not aware of the intricacies of Commonwealth funding to nursing homes, which I am very happy to explain.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: Questions without notice should be confined to the subject matter of the question. Mrs Carnell was asked a question in relation to the price that she sold the nursing home for. She should try to prove how it was such a good deal when it was so much different from that which was pursued by her colleague Mr Kennett.

Mr De Domenico: On that point of order, Mr Speaker: Mr Berry, had he read his standing orders correctly, would realise that they refer to the question, not the answer. Mr Berry might not be happy with the answer that he is getting; but Mrs Carnell, I am sure, is going to give him that answer anyway.

MR SPEAKER: I do not uphold Mr Berry's point of order because, as we know, Ministers can answer the question as they see fit.

Mr Berry: You can ask them how you see fit.

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment. Mrs Carnell had not finished the answer, for all that I know.

MRS CARNELL: I had not even started. What I was about to explain to those opposite - - -

Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I am concerned about something that you just said. I think perhaps it was not exactly the way you intended it. Standing order 118 makes very clear a set of rules that apply to answers, not questions. Your implication is that Ministers can answer questions any way that they like. I think standing order 118 is very clear. It says that they shall be concise and confined to the subject matter of the question and shall not debate the subject to which the question refers. I think the standing orders are quite clear.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you for your clarification of my words, Mr Moore. Mrs Carnell, as she has just indicated to me, had not even begun to answer the question; so I cannot really judge the relevance of Mr Berry's point of order.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. The sale price of the Jindalee Nursing Home certainly would appear, at first look, to be quite low. When you add to that the $700,000 that Johnsons have undertaken to spend on upgrading the facility - money that the ACT Government would have had to spend if we had kept the facility - it makes the equation look quite different.

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