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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2836 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

In connection with the first part of the question, as to why a charge is made on the dumping of clean fill at landfills, it is simply because, contrary to popular belief, small loads of clean fill - and I presume that Ms Horodny is talking about the person that turns up there with a trailer load of dirt they want to dump - simply are not usable for landfill operations. It has no value. One of the problems is: When somebody turns up with a trailer load of soil, how does the guy at the tip know that it is clean fill? It would have to be checked for contamination. It would have to be checked to see whether it contained rock, brick, steel or garbage, before it could be used for anything. The facts are that those small loads delivered to the tip are of no greater value than an equivalent load of any other kind of rubbish. So, if somebody wants to dump it there in preference to taking it down to the commercial operation, then they will have to pay to do so.

Mr Speaker, the interesting thing about this question is that only about four days ago Ms Horodny asked this question of my office and the answer was provided to her on 29 August. So, why she asked it of me again yesterday, I cannot imagine.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, one thing I neglected to mention to Mr Osborne in answering his question earlier today, which he would perhaps find useful, was the Plan for Information Technology in Learning and Teaching 1997-99, which is being developed in conjunction with schools and which has gone out. That establishes three goals. Goal one is to establish requisite learning environments for all students in the information society. Goal two is to develop and maintain information technology competencies of teachers. Goal three is to develop an effective mechanism for assessing and reporting IT competency outcomes for Year 10 students across all curriculum areas. Mr Speaker, as you would no doubt gather, a lot of work has already been done in relation to goal one and goal two.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, yesterday Mr Corbell asked a number of questions of the Chief Minister concerning matters for which I have portfolio responsibility, namely, the costs of the investigation by the AFP of the implosion of the old Royal Canberra Hospital and the costs of involvement of Emergency Service personnel. In answering the question, the Chief Minister, I think, following an interjection from me, indicated that the cost of Police and Emergency Services personnel would probably be minimal because it is part of their normal function. There may have been some extra costs associated with the evacuation of the hospice. I will seek an answer to that part of Mr Corbell's question and provide it to him soon.

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