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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3512 ..

That site was thoroughly prepared beforehand and the work of loading that material onto trucks and carting the material to that site was meticulous. A particular attitude was taken, quite properly, to ensure that there was no danger. Mrs Cross claims material was shifted from one site to another. What sites?

Mrs Cross: You tell me chapter and verse.

MR WOOD: You had better tell me.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister will direct his comments through the chair.

MR WOOD: There was a proposal initially that the site be somewhere towards Coppins Crossing. I do not believe any material was tipped there at all. That is the only point. I can possibly check. That site was deemed to be unsuitable because there was a slow burn of the sludge on that site. Mrs Cross asks me to respond to something that I do not know about, and I am pretty sure never happened. She will have a supplementary question in which I expect she will spell it out in detail.

MRS CROSS: I do have a supplementary question. Is the minister prepared to provide the Assembly with chapter and verse on two things: why the material needed to be moved and why it was stored in an area where there was a slow burn in the sludge; and why it is that he is questioning the validity and legitimacy of concerns of constituents who continue to complain to my office because their concerns were not addressed at that bushfire recovery meeting at the Duffy Primary School?

Mr Wood: When was that meeting?

MRS CROSS: May.

MR WOOD: Nothing has come to my office in all this time. Mrs Cross has raised nothing. No constituent has raised the matter. These are claims like the opposition’s—just saying something without any basis for it.

Mrs Cross: So you are saying that 200 people at a meeting were liars?

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Cross! Everybody will come to order. Mr Wood has the floor. Mr Wood will direct his comments through the chair.

MR WOOD: I do know that the arrangements for moving that material were meticulous, as they needed to be. I would appreciate some advice from Mrs Cross that I can work on.

Schools—asbestos

MR STEFANIAK: My question is directed to the Minister for Education and Training. Many schools in the ACT were built in the 1960s and 1970s when fibrous cement sheeting, asbestos insulation and asbestos-based paint were used extensively in the construction industry. Some ACT government schools have already been found to have that material present. I believe it was found that Yarralumla preschool was riddled with the stuff. I also believe that recently Dickson and Narrabundah colleges were found to have asbestos and that you have done nothing about it. In 2002 the government was told

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