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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 2026 ..

business, given the explanations that we were given. We would have some doubts about that. As I said, I suspect that it is a slush fund that will be used as they see fit, but we will keep an eye on it and make sure that the money is spent wisely.

I will leave the child protection review to my colleague Mrs Burke. We note that the cost has blown out to the tune of another $290,000 and that it will take them an extra five or six weeks. It will be good to get to the bottom of it and we look forward to receiving the results of the review early next week. The Chief Minister put out a press release today that he expects to receive the report on Monday and hopes to release it to the community a week or so later. I do not see why, if he receives it on Monday, the rest of the community cannot see it on Monday as well. Perhaps the Chief Minister would like to make sure that the community receives it as quickly as he does.

I turn to the hockey centre redevelopment. Many of us have been feted by the hockey centre over the years. It is great to see Mr Quinlan become Canberra’s number one hockey fan. In the coming years the AIS hockey program, which is currently located in Perth—I suspect that has a lot to do with the former coach—may have the opportunity to return to where it should be, which is with the AIS in Canberra. We could locate it at the hockey centre at Lyneham. The sum of $4.5 million is a lot of money, but I suspect that it will be money wisely spent. The hockey fraternity in Canberra is quite large. The opportunity to host the women’s international challenge next year will help to put Canberra on the map, so we would be supportive of that, as with the Woden squash centre.

ACT WorkCover is spending a lot of money on investigations, but I think that they are worthwhile. We have some concerns about the volume, but we have to get to the bottom of things such as the collapse of the Fairbairn hangar. I note today that there was an accident at the Curtin shops whereby a large piece of concrete dropped when a cable snapped, narrowly missing cars and workers. I think it would be fair to say that we are all supportive of the work of WorkCover, and having adequate resources is, of course, important. But we need to make sure that they are also providing the outputs.

There is some doubt about the level of training that is being given to the WorkCover inspectors. Recently, I believe, the same concerns were raised in New South Wales. It would be interesting if the minister could come into this place at some stage and tell us what actual training is undertaken so that the inspectors of WorkCover are the best equipped and the best trained to cope with changing circumstances.

There is $560,000 for the resolution of a contractual dispute. Again, the estimates committee made a response to the whole debacle that has been going on for some years, 2½ years, under the care of this government.

Mr Quinlan: It started before that.

MR SMYTH: I said at least 2½ years under the care of this government. To give credit where credit is due, Mr Quinlan, I know where it started.

Mr Quinlan: Words carefully chosen.

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