Page 3487 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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today; the text of the amendment is clear about that. I hope that that piece of information assuages the concerns of any parents who remained unclear about what the situation is going to be.
The tender process has closed, and it is close to being finalised. I understand that the minister is not in a position of being able to provide full details at this stage—not any more details than she has—as the tender process is not a process that she is in charge of. However, I also know that parents are on the edge of their seats waiting to see what is going to happen. They are interested about what options are going to be available and frustrated that they have not received the clarity that they are seeking just yet.
I am sure the NDIA is going to be moving as quickly as possible to let parents know what is happening and who providers will be. I also think that parents should be reassured that the kinds of services they are looking for are more likely to be forthcoming under the tendering model: the input from parents has been put into that model, so they have had a very significant impact on the design of that approach. The tendering model also delivers some confidence to service providers that the ACT will be a viable place to operate in and will allow them to get established in the ACT before having to operate in a model that is totally driven by individual choice in the marketplace. That is also something to be reflected on here: not only is there uncertainty for parents; there is also uncertainty for providers. I think that the approach that has been taken through this tendering process and the provision of a level of guaranteed service is one that addresses concerns on both sides of that equation.
I will be supporting the amendments brought by Ms Burch, but only because I believe that, while they change some of the wording of Mr Wall’s motion, they maintain the intent of the motion, which is to get information to parents as quickly as possible about the service providers that will be operating.
In particular—and I said this to Mr Wall in a side conversation—Mr Wall’s motion called for the provision of information by the end of next Thursday. I have sought clarity from Minister Burch about this. She is not in a position to guarantee it by next Thursday, so I am happy to support the rewording she has indicated, which is that the information will be provided as soon as it is available, and if that is not during a sitting period, it will be circulated to members outside the sitting period. We do not want to leave it until the latter part of November for Ms Burch to report back to the Assembly if that is the way the timing turns out, if it happens to come sometime after next Thursday when the Assembly heads into a break for three or four weeks.
As I said that timing is somewhat out of the minister’s hands. I have had assurance from the minister that she will share this information as quickly as possible once she has access to it. As I said the amendment reflects this. On that basis I will be supporting the amendment moved by Minister Burch today.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (4.40): I will start with the minister’s accusation of me running, to use her words, a “loaded and misinformed commentary”. I will also draw a correlation to the quote that she is reported in the ABC news today as saying:
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