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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4203 ..

I thank Ms Tucker for raising the important issue of students with disabilities, and how they are catered for as they try to reach their educational and employment outcomes. There are currently some great organisations in the ACT community working specifically to obtain work placements for children with disabilities. There are some options there that we can investigate. I thank Mrs Burke for raising the ongoing questions of the participation of students and young people in the community and the educational atmosphere around them.

I hope that this debate today opens up some thinking about how we are working to support disadvantaged people, and especially disadvantaged young people, in our community. We were discussing earlier the demise of the School Without Walls and the impact that had had, not just on students at risk but on the whole student body in the ACT. It was a great educational institution for students from many different backgrounds who just needed a different approach to education. Maybe we need to be thinking a little more broadly about those educational options and how they help many in our community—and maybe they need to be facilitated on a greater level.

I thank members for their support of this motion, as I said, and I thank the minister for her amendment. I hope we see some changes happening so we can fulfil the goal we have set ourselves this evening of supporting young people at risk, helping them get into the employment market and getting them out of long-term generational unemployment.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Residential Property (Awareness of Asbestos) Amendment Bill 2004

Debate resumed from 18 August 2004, on motion by Mrs Cross:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.16): We are here today to consider a most important issue. The bill proposed by Mrs Cross amends the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Regulations 2004 and the Residential Tenancies Act 1997.

The amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 would create an obligation on owners of residential property to declare to prospective tenants the presence of asbestos or asbestos products on a property. The amendments to the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Regulations 2004 would require building inspectors compiling a building report for the sale of residential property to state whether there is asbestos, or asbestos products, in the building; its location and type; and whether access to part of a building was limited or not available during the inspection.

I note that Mrs Cross has circulated amendments to her bill, which would also amend the Dangerous Substances Act 2004 to require persons in control of residential property to

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