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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 3073 ..

MR MOORE: The intention was to do the refurbishment within the money that was set aside for it, but we will do it in the most flexible way we can. We are also in the process of preparing a secure care facility at the Hennessey hostel site. It may require a flexible arrangement between the two sets of capital works to get the best possible outcome but, as is asked for in your question, the focus will always be on ensuring that we deal with patients in the most effective way we possibly can.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Urban Services. In answer to my question yesterday about the resignation of a member of the Interim Tuggeranong Homestead Community Authority, the Minister stated that the code of conduct declaration was simply a routine mechanism in order to ensure that commercially sensitive matters relating to the expressions of interest process for the homestead site were protected. The Minister further claimed that the member was invited to participate on the interim authority as a representative of her community organisation. I ask whether the Minister can explain how his answer yesterday is consistent with advice from the executive officer of the interim authority to Ms Lamb reminding her that the inaugural meeting of the authority had agreed:

The Interim Authority is separate to any organisation which members may already belong to and each member is here in his/her own right, NOT as a representative of their respective organisations. No decisions of the Authority are to be compromised by discussions with other organisations.

Can the Minister explain whether the interim authority has the capacity to determine the status of its membership in this way, and does the Minister support the authority's apparent decision to ignore the important role of community representatives in this way?

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, the interim authority does not ignore the rights of people to represent groups. Whenever people are appointed to boards in the ACT, they are asked to sign the Bowen agreement. There are confidentiality agreements governing information they may receive and may have to assess. This is a standard practice. I stand by my answer yesterday. Ms Lamb was picked as a representative of MOTH. MOTH has had an interest in the Tuggeranong Homestead for a long time, but other community representatives are there as well. Ms Rosemary Lissimore, the president of the Tuggeranong Community Council is there. She signed the confidentiality agreement. Representatives from the Heritage Council signed the confidentiality agreement. I understand that the interim authority is working well together. They all agreed that this course was appropriate so that we could progress the future of the Tuggeranong Homestead.

Tuggeranong Homestead is 31 hectares of very special land in the middle of the Tuggeranong Valley. It is an immense asset for us. There we have signs of convict participation. As Europeans moved in they displaced the original habitants,

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