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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4046 ..

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, under standing order 46, I wish to make a personal explanation.

MR SPEAKER: Proceed.

MR HIRD: If Mr Whitecross had stopped interjecting, and I know that interjections are not permitted, he would have heard what I said.

MR SPEAKER: Would you mind making the personal explanation.

MR HIRD: The personal explanation is in respect of what I said. The Government will not operate with reduced services over the summer as in previous years. I seek leave to table that part of my speech.

Mr Whitecross: Mr Speaker, I welcome the fact that Mr Hird has now correctly read the speech that was written for him by the Minister.

MR HIRD: He is interjecting again, as usual.

Leave granted.

MS REILLY (4.36): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to amend my notice by omitting from paragraph (2) "in the November sittings" and substituting "as soon as possible".

Leave granted.

MS REILLY: I move:

That this Assembly calls on the Government:

(1) to do a feasibility study on the possible establishment of an Early Intervention Centre in the ACT modelled on the Stimulus Early Intervention Centre located at South Windsor, NSW.

(2) to table the study with recommendations either for or against such a centre as soon as possible.

I want to start by looking at some of the recent history of the development of early intervention services in the ACT. In June 1994 the Assembly Standing Committee on Social Policy reported on early intervention services in the ACT. The terms of reference for that inquiry were quite broad. The committee looked at the provision of early intervention services to children aged from zero to five years in the ACT who had been identified as experiencing developmental delays and/or disabilities of any kind.

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