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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 971 ..

MRS CROSS: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister for the answer. Minister, are you prepared to table in the Assembly the criteria that you are going use to base your decision on whether you do or do not use your call-in powers, given that we have had issues with call-in powers recently? It is a very controversial issue. Are you prepared to raise that issue with the Assembly before you make a final decision?

MR CORBELL: Under the Land Act the exercise of the call-in power is vested in the minister. It is not a decision of the Assembly. Indeed, the Assembly indicated on a previous occasion earlier this year that it does not want to get involved in deciding whether the exercise of the call in is appropriate.

The criteria for the exercise of the call in are set out in the Land Act, which, of course, is publicly available. It is also set out in Labor’s planning policy, which outlines some additional criteria that I, as a Labor Party minister, will abide by. So those criteria are already publicly available.

Community services

MS MacDONALD: My question is to the Chief Minister. I understand that the government has altered the manner in which it funds the provision of community services through the community sector. Chief Minister, can you tell the Assembly why the government’s new community sector funding policy was introduced and how it operates?

Mrs Dunne: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Has this policy been announced already? Is it available policy?

MR SPEAKER: I do not thinks that it asks for a policy to be announced.

Mrs Dunne: Okay. I am just checking.

MR SPEAKER: That’s good.

MR STANHOPE: Community services worth approximately $70 million per annum are funded by the ACT government and are overwhelmingly provided by the community sector.

Upon taking office, the government committed to a review of service purchasing arrangements in order to enhance the viability of non-government organisations to provide services to the community and to improve the quality of services provided by them to the community. Accordingly, in December 2002 a working group convened by the Chief Minister’s Department commenced a review of service purchasing arrangements in collaboration with the community sector in order to identify necessary reforms. The working group developed the community sector funding policy.

The community sector funding policy commits the ACT government to a partnership approach, whilst still operating under the Government Procurement Act 2001. The policy is a key element of the building a stronger community flagship of the Canberra social

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