Page 3096 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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park, the Mulligans Flat initiatives that the government has supported—with further work to be undertaken there around establishing a visitors centre—things like the Jerrabomberra wetlands, and our promotion of the Namadgi National Park have all featured either in VisitCanberra or, indeed, Tourism Australia’s promotion of Canberra. It is a part of our overall tourism strategy.
More significant, clearly, will be the international student market and the visiting friends and relatives market. There are 14,392 international students enrolled in territory institutions. Research commissioned by Study Canberra in 2016 indicates that around 19 per cent of them spend their first night or nights in Canberra in a hotel. Eighty-one per cent of interstate students and 41 per cent of international students had friends and family visit them whilst they were studying in Canberra. So if you look at the numbers associated with the international student market, they are very significant, Canberra’s single biggest export earner. Environmental tourism is very significant. International student tourism is even more significant.
Canberra Hospital—risk assessment
MS LAWDER: My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, on 17 August 2017, you advised that some panels of cladding at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children were flammable and needed to be removed. On 1 August 2017, you tabled the ACT health infrastructure asset condition report by AECOM advising that there were four extreme risks and 143 high risks in the ACT health system as at the end of 2015, which does not include the cladding risk. Why did the ACT government allow extreme and high risks to develop, especially at the Canberra Hospital campus?
MS FITZHARRIS: I thank Ms Lawder for the question. As I have advised the Assembly on a number of occasions, the government undertook what all good governments do and did an asset condition report, which is the AECOM report that Ms Lawder refers to and which has been the subject of extensive discussion in this place. The government went on to act on the findings of that report. As with all condition reports, as with all assessments, a risk matrix is used. There are risks that are on an escalating risk rating. The extreme risks were identified, and those extreme risks are being addressed. Indeed, a number of them have been fully completed.
MS LAWDER: Minister, how long have there been high and extreme risks present at the Canberra Hospital campus?
MS FITZHARRIS: Those risks have been identified and are being addressed. They were identified in the AECOM report, which fully informed the government’s decision in last year’s budget to address those risks.
Ms Lawder: Point of order as to relevance, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Point of order, Ms Lawder.
Ms Lawder: The question was: how long have these high and extreme risks been present: not when they were identified, but how long they have been present.
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