Page 168 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 12 February 2020
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it is important that we absolutely get it right. If it were the case that there were a little more planning at the beginning to ensure that we deliver the right product at the end, that would be time well spent.
MS LEE: Minister, how much of the $6.5 million allocated during the 2018-19 financial year for the SPIRE project will be spent during the 2019-20 financial year, and on what?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Obviously, additional funding has been allocated to the SPIRE project year-on-year. There will be millions of dollars spent this year. We are well progressed in relation to some of the early works. We are already well underway on the construction of the new building 28, which will house the administrative functions that will move from building 24 before it is demolished. That new demountable structure should be completed fairly shortly. A number of other site preparatory works and decanting works are underway.
There will be millions and millions of dollars spent on the SPIRE project this year. I will take on notice the detail of how much of them relate to the $6½ million that Ms Lee was referring to.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, why was the rollover not completed by November 2019 and has it been completed now?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will take that question on notice.
ACT Health—emergency department performance
MR PARTON: Madam Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Health. The recent Productivity Commission ROGS report on ED performance reveals that in the ACT only 46 per cent of people who presented to an emergency department were seen on time during 2018-19. This contrasts with the national average of 71 per cent. ROGS data also tells us that 78 per cent of all patients in ED were seen on time in 2000-01 and 2001-02. Minister, why is it that the timeliness of care in our EDs has declined so much and compares so badly with the national average?
Mrs Dunne: Great question.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Parton for his question and I note that Mrs Dunne does like to go back to the 2001 period. In looking back at some of Mr Stanhope’s comments in the Assembly, in relation to some of the comments he has recently made, I note his frequent reference to the previous Liberal government cutting 114 beds from Canberra’s public hospital system in its six years in government. If Mrs Dunne would like to go back to that period when the Canberra Liberals were in government and cutting hospital beds—
Mrs Dunne: Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order. The standing orders require the minister to be directly relevant to the question, which is about why the timeliness of care has declined so much. Also the standing orders require that the minister not
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