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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2581 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

rate of 72.5 per cent. 72.5 per cent of people who are involved in the disability program, the client group, are rating the disability program thus-and I think it is worth keeping it in perspective.

Mr Speaker, I am sure that since I put a press release out it will be on the front page of the Canberra Times tomorrow, replacing the one that Mr Smyth put out-or next to it-because this is good news for the disability program that has been getting a rather significant bagging through the Canberra Times.

MR WOOD: I have a supplementary, Mr Speaker. Mr Moore might read these reports. Do you understand that money isn't everything and this is not a failure due to lack of money; this is a failure of systems-training and a whole host of those factors?

MR SPEAKER: That is not a question.

MR MOORE: Indeed, Mr Speaker. I have read the reports. That is why I am flabbergasted that Mr Wood can stand up here and say, "This is a failing of systems." Mr Wood, you had better go and read the reports and read them with an open mind. We have two reports that say contrary things. We have one report that says it is a failing of systems; and we have another report that says it is not a failing of systems. So, Mr Wood, one of those is right and the other one is wrong.

What we are going to do, and what disability program has been doing, is look at the worst case scenario in both of those reports and say, "What can we do to change whatever is the worst case scenario?" This is the problem of having the two inquiries running at the same time. They have contrary views. The coroner found the "one failure which I have criticised does not, in my view, reflect other than an isolated situation which existed in the premises".

Mr Wood, I suggest you read both reports carefully and not just for political mileage.

Police funding

MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the minister for police. It concerns budget allocations. In March of this year the minister appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety in its investigation of the draft estimates. He talked about overhead costs we would have to pay the AFP for their services in the ACT. Mr Murray described them as enabling costs. Mr Smyth said that, of the $7.3 million, $4 million was for Mr Murray. The national office says that the cost of supporting the ACT is more than they estimated. They now say that it costs an extra $7 million to provide that service. We understand that that is what the $7 million from the budget is for. However, only two months later, in May of that year, in answer to a question on notice, we got a different story. The question went like this:

Is it true that the AFP has estimated the cost of these enabling services as being between $7 million and $9 million?

The answer from the minister was no. Oops! Next question:

If not, what are the estimated costs of these services?

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