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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1046 ..

sitting week of March this year. My intention in presenting the Health Professionals Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 today is to allow members of the Assembly an opportunity to consider the provisions of this bill so that the Health Professionals Bill 2003 and the Health Professionals Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 can be debated at the same time. The Health Professionals Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 provides the consequential amendments that are necessary to follow from the replacement of the ACT’s current laws relating to the regulation of health professionals in the ACT. The consequential amendments proposed in this bill are primarily a result of the changes to the ACT’s Health Professionals Act, which consolidates the existing health professional laws into a single act.

The bill includes amendments proposed to the Community and Health Services Complaints Act 1993. These reforms, amongst other changes, propose an enhanced process in relation to the assessment and investigation of reports about health professionals. To effect these changes it has been necessary to slightly revise the Community and Health Services Complaints Act 1993. The remainder of the consequential amendments relate to removing references in the ACT legislation to acts that are to be repealed under the transitional provisions of the Health Professionals Bill 2004. I commend the bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Smyth) adjourned to the next sitting.

Planning and Environment—Standing Committee

Reference

MRS DUNNE (11.11): I seek leave to amend the notice circulated in my name to delete the words “block 99” substituting “section 99, block 11”.

Leave granted.

MRS DUNNE: I move:

That the Legislative Assembly refer to the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment for investigation and report by 1 July 2004, the proposal for aged care facilities on part of Section 99, Block 11, Holt, the disused holes 19 to 27 of the Belconnen Golf Course.

It could be fair to say that this sitting week has been dominated by the notion and the issues relating to aged care. They are issues of considerable discomfort for the Minister for Health and Minister for Planning—who has just left the room—and I think that it is appropriate that a considerable amount of testing by the opposition and some crossbench members on the issues—

MR SPEAKER: What the member says must be relevant to the motion.

MRS DUNNE: Yes, this is entirely relevant, Mr Speaker. I think the Chief Minister might call it context but it is actually more than that. As a result of some testing of the issues by the opposition and members of the crossbench we come to a motion today to refer a somewhat controversial proposal—well, it is been made controversial—to the Planning and Environment Committee for inquiry and report back. It is a fairly

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