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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (4 November) . . Page.. 3537 ..

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, if the Minister does not answer the question, I am obliged to re-ask the question, am I not?

MR SPEAKER: No, you are not, actually; but go on.

MR WHITECROSS: The Minister gave a very convoluted answer which I am trying to decipher, and I am asking a supplementary question in the hope that he will decipher it. Minister, can you confirm that your answer meant that you have not made a decision at all in relation to Phillip? If not, when will you make a decision? If you have, will you table the feasibility study, as I requested? Can you also explain what is happening with Manuka Oval? Finally, can you confirm that blind Freddy's plight is mainly due to the fact that he cannot get spectacles under the spectacles scheme anymore?

Mrs Carnell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: It is contrary to standing orders to ask for the announcement of Government policy in question time.

MR SPEAKER: I cannot anticipate whether it is Executive policy; but if it is, of course, the Minister cannot answer it because it would be breaching standing orders.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I will certainly be making a full announcement at the appropriate time. But unlike you lot, when you were in government, Mr Whitecross - and I know you were only an adviser then - this Government does believe in extensive consultation with relevant groups, and that is exactly what we are doing on this issue.

MR MOORE: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, when you attend the COAG meeting on Friday, will you be agreeing to the prohibition drug strategy that the Prime Minister announced on Sunday, since the Prime Minister has ignored the vast bulk of the 26 royal commissions, parliamentary inquiries and official inquiries over the last 25 years, in favour of the Max Moore-Wilton three-week report? Will you insist that this report be released before you discuss the PM's proposal? Will you make it public so that you can have the benefit of the views of academics, coalface workers, deliverers of treatments, users, parents and other interested parties, or will you support the secretary to the Prime Minister's Department in adopting this demonstrably failed prohibitionist approach?

MR SPEAKER: Be careful about the Executive policy again, Chief Minister.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker and Mr Moore, COAG is not being asked to agree to the Prime Minister's announced strategy in this particular area; so, there is not an issue of whether we agree or we do not agree. The Prime Minister has made a Federal Government policy announcement. He has indicated that $87.5m will be spent over the next three years in a mixed area - increased money for the AFP and Customs, increased money for education and increased money for treatment centres. So, on the basis of not actually having been asked to agree on this, I think the most sensible approach here is to make sure that the ACT does as well as possible out of this announcement.

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