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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2603 ..

Mr Foster: 4.7 that went to Calvary for overall costs.

Dr Gregory: It was money left over from the scholarship scheme, which was then redirected into service provision.

MRS DUNNE: So the scholarship scheme wasn’t taken up?

Dr Gregory: There was some spare money from it.

Mr Foster: That money was returned to the centre for this financial year, so we have the full amount available for scholarships in 2002-03.

Then I asked:

That is about 3.4?

He replied:

Well, there are some other amounts of throughput money we did provide because of delayed spending on programs within the health portfolio in 2001-2002.

Then Mrs Dunne finishes:

So what you’re saying, Mr Foster, is that there are a lot of little buckets … and … you’ve quite rightly put it into—

Mr Foster closes:

Pressure points.

Mr Speaker, the only nursing scholarship money was pre-existing money from the former government. Indeed, unexpected scholarship money for 2001-02 was redirected to Calvary and pressure points. Therefore, the only money for nursing scholarships is that which was funded in the outyears by the former Liberal government. Mr Corbell has misled the public in his media release; he has misled the Assembly in question time; and he has misled the Estimates Committee.

Mr Speaker, the misleading statements are made worse by the fact that two of them contradict each other. In the Assembly Mr Corbell states that the $300,000 for mental health nursing scholarships was provided “in our last budget”. In estimates he states that it was provided “in the January 2002 appropriation”. In both cases the answers are incorrect.

The final word, though, Mr Speaker, apparently is an answer to a question on notice that states at point 7:

An appropriation for “Strengthening the Nursing Workforce” in 2001-02 included $0.600M for general nursing scholarships. In 2002-03, in response to an identified specific need in Mental Health half these funds were transferred to Mental Health.

That, Mr Speaker, is just the first example of three that I have.

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