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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (25 March) . . Page.. 848 ..
MS CARNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The fact is that those opposite are going to be very disappointed, because Bruce Stadium is now regarded as probably the best stadium of its type in Australia. The coach of St George stated last weekend, after an inch and a half of rain had fallen at Bruce Stadium, that the surface was the best in the competition. It handled the rain very well. I think that is pretty impressive.
MR QUINLAN: I would not mind getting in answer to my supplementary question an explanation as to why the Government set up Bruce Operations Pty Ltd, which is two public servants. Can you also tell me whether Bruce Operations Pty Ltd - that limited company with two directors, two public servants - has entered long-term contracts with any people at Bruce for major services, including marketing? What is the expiry date of those contracts?
MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I have already made the comment that the contract that Mr Quinlan was asking about, the contract with Nationwide Venue Management, is until July 1999.
MR BERRY: My question is to the Minister for Health and Community Care. The Minister will recall the statements by the Chief Minister during last year's election campaign that, as far as cuts to the ACT Public Service were concerned, the pain was over; there would be no need for any more slash and burn. Does the Minister think this is her first, second or third order of principle, or has it fallen off the scale? How does the Minister explain the minute of yesterday's date from the chief executive of his department, Mr David Butt, to all members of his staff inviting expressions of interest in voluntary redundancies? Can the Minister tell the Assembly how many jobs will be lost in this round of redundancies and from which areas of operation within the department they will come? How many redundancies will occur in 1999-2000?
MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I will take that question, because it is based upon something that I was supposed to have said. The fact is that that was not the approach. That was not what this Government went to the last election with - in fact, quite the opposite. When asked whether there would be any more redundancies, the comment was: "Yes, there would be because there would always be changes in the direction of the Public Service". We said that there would be no more systemic redundancies - that is, no more 2 per cent across-the-board cuts in public servants. In fact, quite specifically - - -
Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I asked Mr Moore whether he thought that was a first, second or third order of principle or whether it was off the scale. That is not a question that Mrs Carnell can properly answer.
MR SPEAKER: That section was out of order because it was hypothetical.
MS CARNELL
: The second part of the question becomes non-existent, because the first part was wrong. The Government stands by that view. The reason that we went down the path of no more systemic cuts in the Public Service was simply that those
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