Page 4342 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, that is enough.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: The Chief Minister and I were at an industry briefing at lunchtime which is still ongoing, enabling a large number of representatives of the sector to participate in early conversations about the main procurement process for this very exciting facility for the future of Canberra, the biggest investment in health infrastructure since self-government.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, how do you know that the now twice relocated SPIRE will integrate well into the rest of the hospital complex in the absence of a master plan?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Dunne for the supplementary question. As I have said before in this place, the fact that a thing called a Canberra Hospital master plan has not been completed at this point does not mean that there has not been planning on the Canberra Hospital site and for the Canberra Hospital site over many years.
As I said in response to the first question that I was asked, a site decision was made following extensive consultation with clinicians. The decision was also made in the context of the space available on the campus for the new facility and the need for it to connect with other buildings on the site. The decision was also made in relation to the need to ensure that clinical operations could continue on the Canberra Hospital site while this really exciting new facility is being built: a new, expanded emergency department, new operating theatres, a new ICU, a facility of 40,000 square metres, a state-of-the-art facility that will service Canberrans and the people of surrounding New South Wales for the next decade and beyond.
Animals—racehorses
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for City Services and relates to the welfare of ex-racehorses from the ACT. Since the recent revelations of abuse of retired racehorses in abattoirs and knackeries, the Queensland government has initiated an inquiry into cruelty violations and Racing New South Wales has called for the implementation of a national register. Is the ACT government aware of any apparent violations of current ACT horseracing retirement policies which have led to retired ACT racehorses being abused and slaughtered interstate and, if so, what have you done to contact the relevant jurisdiction’s government?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. Like other members of the community, I was appalled to see the footage of the horses at the abattoir facility in Queensland and since then Gordon Ramsay, the Attorney-General, and I have written to the President of the Canberra Racing Club to seek assurances that Canberra racehorses were not involved in that process. I have also separately written to the Animal Welfare Advisory Council asking them to take another look at our code of practice with regard to dealing with racehorses so that it can be reviewed in light of the footage that we have seen through the ABC’s program.
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