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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1464 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, as I have indicated to the Assembly on a number of occasions lately, the contract to go ahead with the private hospital has been signed; but, of course, further contracts may need to be entered into for the ongoing building of this $20m facility, with 230 construction jobs. There are planning requirements and all sorts of things. I am suggesting that we delete paragraph (2). As the Assembly has indicated that it is not interested in stopping a $20m development with 230 jobs - - -

Mr Berry: I am.

MRS CARNELL: Apart from Mr Berry, who has indicated that he would like to do that.

MR SPEAKER: By interjection, which is out of order.

MRS CARNELL: I am sure that other members of the Assembly do not want to slow down a project of this nature.

The second amendment sets a reporting date. It is a rather strange select committee that has no reporting date. I am suggesting 31 August as the reporting date for this committee.

Mr Berry: If we cannot make it, we will come back.

MRS CARNELL: It is always the option of any committee to come back if they cannot make it, but it would be unusual for us to set up a select committee that had absolutely no reporting date. The reporting date of 31 August is 31/2 months away, and it is during a period when the Assembly has quite a lot of time. After the estimates process is over, there is a break. That gives the committee an opportunity to focus on this issue.

Even with the deletion of paragraph (2) and the adding of a reporting date, I see absolutely no benefit in this motion. In my speech previously, I actually answered the questions for the Assembly. I went through them all and gave the Assembly the answers, so it will be quite quick for the committee to look at it. Mr Humphries was right when he said that this is just a stunt; it is just Mr Berry having a bit of a problem with a private hospital. We are all pretty used to that sort of approach.

This side of the house will have to consider whether we put somebody onto the committee. Everybody is fairly busy at the moment. That is obviously a matter that we will take a decision on. The reason for making that decision is that we know the answers to the questions because we have already done the work. We are very happy to make all of that work available to the committee. The bottom line here is that we must not hold up a $20m, 230-job project that is due to start, as I understand it, in June or July. We must allow that project to happen. We must allow jobs to be created in the ACT and choice to be created in Canberra. If Mr Berry wants to pull political stunts, that is fine too.

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