Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 2441 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

We are fully assessing and prioritising all the identified sites. That is all being done, and we are fully consulting I have just had discussions with Mr Kaine and Ms Tucker about how you would define "fully consulting". We have already met that requirement. We have fully consulted the key stakeholders. We are already doing what the last part of the motion requires of us, with the exception of consulting with the Commonwealth. I do not think it is appropriate to consult with the Commonwealth any further, so you could delete that.

A much better idea is to simply knock this motion off. The premise upon which it is based is simply incorrect, including the political statements about the decision of the Government to include the land occupied by the hospice in the Acton-Kingston swap and the failure of the Government to successfully negotiate with the Commonwealth for the retention of the ACT Hospice on Acton Peninsula. The mistakes go right back to the time when Mr Berry put the hospice of Acton Peninsula. That is what the mistake was. We all know that is what the mistake was. I conceded some time ago that at the time I accepted Mr Berry's decision, although Ms Carnell will discuss that matter further. It seems that I have some faulty memory.

Mr Speaker, this motion is simply unnecessary. This Government has worked incredibly hard and I have worked incredibly hard to make sure that we can have the best possible hospice, with the best possible people, as Mr Stanhope correctly described them earlier, and that we can have it in the best location that suits all the stakeholders as well as the Government. We can prioritise the sites and make sure that there is not a conflict that can knock them off. That is the basis upon which Cabinet will make its decision. It is important that Cabinet make its decision on Monday. Unless we have the bulldozers on site at the beginning of next year, the hospice will not be completed on time.

Ms Carnell: And then they will complain.

MR MOORE: Of course, they will be first ones screaming, so do not stop it. Because we want to have appropriate probity, the process now is to call for tenders and get the project developers, the planners and the architects under way through the next few months leading to Christmas so that we can have those bulldozers on site on time. Even then, there is going to have to be a small amount of fast-tracking. The bulldozers will have to prepare the footprint while the final fittings and so forth are still being designed by the architects. So we really do have to make this decision on Monday. We have fully consulted, and we will continue to consult, with Calvary, the Hospice and Palliative Care Society, the Hospice and Palliative Care Partnership Team, and Sister Berenice at the hospice. Mr Stanhope, if you are happy to have another go at it, I am happy to have another go at trying to consult with you as well.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (6.09): Mr Speaker, this Assembly cannot pass a motion that is simply untrue. I would ask Ms Tucker to listen for a moment as I am sure she listened to Mr Moore. Mr Stanhope, yesterday in the Assembly and again today, has made comments about the fact that when Ms Follett was negotiating for the land swap the hospice was definitely not part of it. That would be the case except that Ms Follett said on 13 October 1994, when we went into election mode:

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .