Page 3210 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Corbell has the call.
Mr Corbell: You cannot simply ask a question and say, “I am asking a question of Mr Barr, who is the minister responsible for concessional leases,” and then change the subject entirely to issues about the sale of the Canberra Labor Club Group. Mr Doszpot has not asked the question in a way that relates the first part of his question to the second part of his question. It is a subterfuge to allow Mr Doszpot to ask a question of Mr Barr that does not relate to his portfolio responsibilities. The question is out of order.
Mr Seselja: Mr Speaker, he appears to be questioning your ruling. I think you have ruled that this is in order and that it simply needed to be reframed in terms of referring to the relevant minister. He has done that. Mr Corbell is labouring on the same point. We are entitled to ask whether a minister who is responsible for concessional leases, which will be part of the sale of this club—it is a concessional lease; it will be the transfer of a concessional lease—if he or any of his representatives have in any way influenced that. That is directly relevant and it needs to be answered.
MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Corbell. My understanding is that there are relevant issues in Mr Barr’s portfolio that are being asked about.
MR BARR: No.
Health—disability services
MS BRESNAN: My question is to the Minister for Health and concerns the move of a number of disability equipment services to Kambah, in particular the Independent Living Centre. Minister, if those services become more difficult for people in the ACT to access, the ACT government would violate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. What assurances can you provide to people with a disability that the availability of transport to the Kambah facility will be equal to or better than that which they have to current facilities?
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am very happy to give that commitment to people who have a disability that might be using a whole range of services at what we hope is the new aged care and rehabilitation service to open at Village Creek school.
The aim of this whole relocation is to make it more convenient for people who are using these services by allowing a collocation of a number of work sites and places for people to go to into one location. If they have to visit an occupational therapist and then go and look for some equipment, instead of going from one site to another, they will be dealt with in a one-stop shop.
It is true that staff and clients of the Independent Living Centre based in Weston have raised concerns, both with me and with ACT Health, about the relocation to Kambah. I think at this point in time ACT Health are doing everything they can to address all of those concerns. They are having regular forums with staff. They are speaking with ACTION bus services and local community services around the buses. They have set
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