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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4802 ..

MR SPEAKER: Mr Hird, you might like to rephrase the last part of it.

Mr Berry: I think he should withdraw the question. It is an imputation.

MR SPEAKER: No; Mr Hird can rephrase the tail of his question. The question that was asked yesterday was perfectly in order, but the suggestion that Mr Berry has misled the house in asking it is not. If you could just rephrase that last part - - -

Mr Berry: No; I would like him to withdraw it, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Well, would you withdraw the imputation, first of all?

MR HIRD: I do.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

MR HIRD: I was about to do that. Just wait your turn.

Mr Berry: Asking him to rephrase it is a bit of a tall order.

MR SPEAKER: That is what I am asking.

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, is Mr Berry misinformed, in other words, on this subject?

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Hird.

MR DE DOMENICO: I thank Mr Hird for his question, Mr Speaker. Yesterday I was extremely concerned to hear by Mr Berry's question of the possibility of medical waste being dumped at the sullage pit at Belconnen landfill. Mr Berry said:

Today I received an urgent telephone call informing me that a truckload of what appeared to be hospital waste was dumped in the pit. The waste included hazardous and possibly infectious material, in particular used cotton buds and syringes.

Coincidentally, Mr Speaker, Ms Horodny, I think, asked a similar question of the Chief Minister, again prompted by a phone call, I am told, to her office. I am also informed that a Capital Ten news crew received a tip-off and were out at the tip with a camera crew filming the sludge pit and interviewing a CFMEU official who stated quite categorically that what had been uncovered was hospital waste. Funnily enough, Mr Speaker, the only people, it would appear, who were not alerted to the situation were the Government, the management at the Belconnen tip, the Registrar of Occupational Health and Safety and the Pollution Control Authority. Mr Speaker, it does not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what is going on here, does it? It would be interesting to see who rang Ms Horodny's office, but we do not need to know the answer. I think we all know.

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