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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 3378 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Indeed, Mr Johnston said this morning:

Our patients are always our primary concern and sufficient staff remained on the wards to enable adequate levels of patient care to be maintained.

Mr Speaker, as we know, the nurses themselves are interested in patient care and put that as their highest priority. It is a shame that we cannot say the same for the Nursing Federation, who were prepared to call a stop and not even put on skeleton staff in a salary dispute where we are trying to give nurses a 10 per cent increase.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, yesterday Ms Tucker asked me about an inquiry into the incineration of pesticides at Totalcare. The former Minister, Mr Humphries, wrote to the Commissioner for the Environment on 12 August 1997 advising that the Assembly had passed a motion calling on the Government to implement a number of measures in relation to the Totalcare incinerator at Mitchell and the Minister asked the commissioner to consider the need for an investigation of the incineration of pesticides. At the same time a code of practice for the incinerator was being developed and, on completion, that code was included in the authorisation for the incinerator under the Environment Protection Act 1997. As the code itself includes a moratorium on the incineration of pesticides, an investigation by the commissioner was not then required.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, yesterday Mr Kaine asked some questions in relation to Kingston and a Canberra Times article. The ACT Government's precinct management program has made available $535,000 in the 1998-99 financial year for the first stage of a two-stage upgrade of the Kingston shopping centre's public places. In this first stage, Mr Speaker, we are focusing on the Green Square area. What we will see there is a rejuvenation of the landscaping, the paving, and the drainage and improvements to lighting and street furniture. In stage two of the master plan, the upgrading works will be extended to Eyre Street and Jardine Street, and linkages will be put in place between the shopping centre and the new Kingston foreshore development. That work is yet to be funded.

The article that appeared in the Canberra Times on Monday, 7 December 1998 stated that funds had been diverted from the upgrade of Green Square to be spent on fixing drainage. That statement is misleading, Mr Speaker. The stormwater works outlined are critical elements of the Green Square upgrade. They involve the provision of new sumps and piping from Green Square leading northwards along Jardine Street. This new pipe work will connect into the old stormwater system opposite the laneway exit at

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