Page 2373 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 16 June 2009
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the car park. The minister is to be commended for taking the necessary steps to ensure that the Canberra Hospital capital works and the first linchpin project—that is, the car park—are progressed without unnecessary delay, thus securing not only the worth of the Canberra Hospital redevelopment but also significant work for the local building and construction industry.
Rather than support the minister in this critical decision, the opposition moved quickly to political stunts of calling her back to the committee and accusing her of a cover-up. The opposition response is just another example of the opposition not having a view for the future, just a view to the next stunt.
The Indigenous healing farm is a commendable project that has the support of the Aboriginal community. It is of concern to me, however, that the opposition sought to link this with yet another political stunt. Jeremy Hanson joined the committee and asked about an email he sourced through FOI. He noted that a number of words had been blacked out, such as “cellar door”, and he immediately went to cover-up. I find it repugnant that the opposition sought to link the possible cellar door on an adjoining property to be inappropriate for Indigenous clients of a health centre.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I also find it of great concern that Hanson, through the media, subsequently at a committee hearing and again here in this chamber, has accused the ACT public service of having an institutional bias and conducting a cover-up on behalf of this government. Such insinuations are an insult to our public service. It is disappointing that the discussions regarding the AMC, our new prison, focused on exercise equipment rather than the broad range of rehabilitation, health and education programs for the AMC.
I finally want to note again my appreciation for the secretariat of the ACT Assembly for their support during the process. I want to declare my utmost appreciation for the ACT public service and the members that came and appeared before the committee. They go about delivering service for each and every one of us in the ACT each and every day. It is the ACT public service senior executive and staff that work tirelessly to ensure that services and programs in the ACT are amongst the best in Australia. For that I am forever grateful. It has been with no great pleasure that I have presented my dissenting comments to this report.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (5.20): I would first off like to thank the staff of the secretariat also for all their support and hard work throughout the estimates process. In particular, I would like to thank Grace Concannon and Hanna Jaireth for their strength and forbearance through the report deliberations and in finalising the estimates report. I would like to thank the chair of the estimates committee, Mr Seselja, for allowing members to pursue questions and explore issues in an investigative matter. I would also like to thank the other members of the estimates committee, Ms Le Couteur, Ms Burch and Mr Smyth, for their contributions through the estimates process. I think every member of the committee worked hard and made significant contributions to the process.
I found the budget process overall to be a great learning and informative experience. Given this was the first estimates committee that I have personally been involved in, I was quite surprised and disappointed by the behaviour of some ministers and
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