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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 639 ..

Mrs Dunne: I did not.

MR STANHOPE: You asked a question about the expenditure of money. That is one of the things on your list. You have issued a list and it is on it with the others.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat, Mrs Dunne.

Mrs Dunne: I did not. Mr Speaker, would it help to repeat the question so that Mr Stanhope knows what he is talking about?

MR SPEAKER: No, you can spare us that. I am sure that the Chief Minister is about to come right to the point.

MR STANHOPE: I am, Mr Speaker. It was a very significant weekend and it was an important weekend in the context of this government's determination to deliver good government, and that is what we will do. We will deliver good government. We went to the last election committed to concentrating on the things that were important to the people of the ACT. We were committed to overturning some of the missed priorities and the misspending of the previous government. That is what we went to the election on.

We made significant promises in relation to health. We promised to settle the nurses dispute. We promised to hold a health summit. We have taken significant steps in relation to the implementation of the Gallop report. We have undertaken to do a myriad of things in relation to health. We are having a look at the whole structure of that portfolio, because it is quite obvious to me that there are a range of systemic issues that need to be addressed in relation to our capacity to appropriately deliver health services to the people of Canberra, accentuated by the Gallop report and the recommendations it makes. Mick Reid is looking at that structure for us and I have no doubt that that will lead to some significant recommendations. It is important in that context that we get together as a ministry, as a cabinet, as a government, with our senior advisers and with our chief executives to develop the framework and to develop the strategic plans for taking those issues forward.

Similarly in relation to planning. We discussed planning at length. The detailed plans which we have, which Simon Corbell has developed and articulated and which we are currently in the process of implementing at pace, are planning reforms that will overturn completely the way in which planning is perceived and undertaken in this town, plans that are broadly applauded by the community, by the business sector and by developers for the certainty that they will give. Those are the things we discussed and it is appropriate that we discussed them. We discussed-

Mr Humphries: We did not ask what you discussed.

MR STANHOPE: Yes, you did, and you asked why we did it. We did it in order to develop a framework, a plan, an agenda. We looked at the things that are important to this government and are important to the community. We looked at the need to address issues around disadvantage and the extent to which this government, as a government, will concentrate its energies on addressing disadvantage within this community. That is something that we will do, something that we are committed to and something that takes a fair bit of effort, energy and planning.

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