5896
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
Thursday 24 October 2002 ______
Mr Speaker (The Hon. John Henry Murray) took the chair at 10.00 a.m.
Mr Speaker offered the Prayer.
COASTAL PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILL
In Committee
Consideration of the Legislative Council's amendments.
Schedule of amendments referred to in message of 23 October.
No. 1 Page 2, clause 2, lines 5 and 6. Omit all words on those lines. Insert instead:
This Act commences on the day that is 3 months after the date of assent.
No. 2 Page 2, clause 4. Omit the clause.
No. 3 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert after line 2:
[1] Section 3
Insert after section 2:
3 Objects of this Act
The objects of this Act are to provide for the protection of the coastal environment of the State for the benefit of both present and future generations and, in particular:
(a) to protect, enhance, maintain and restore the environment of the coastal region, its associated ecosystems, ecological processes and biological diversity, and its water quality, and
(b) to encourage, promote and secure the orderly and balanced utilisation and conservation of the coastal region and its natural and man-made resources, having regard to the principles of ecologically sustainable development, and
(c) to recognise and foster the significant social and economic benefits to the State that result from a sustainable coastal environment, including:
(i) benefits to the environment, and
(ii) benefits to urban communities, fisheries, industry and recreation, and
(iii) benefits to culture and heritage, and
(iv) benefits to the Aboriginal people in relation to their spiritual, social, customary and economic use of land and water, and
(d) to promote public pedestrian access to the coastal region and recognise the public's right to access, and
(e) to provide for the acquisition of land in the coastal region to promote the protection, enhancement, maintenance and restoration of the environment of the coastal region, and
(f) to recognise the role of the community, as a partner with government, in resolving issues relating to the protection of the coastal environment, and
(g) to ensure co-ordination of the policies and activities of the Government and public authorities relating to the coastal region and to facilitate the proper integration of their management activities, and
(h) to establish the Coastal Council to advise the Minister in relation to the matters referred to in paragraphs (a)−(g) and, in particular, to develop policies in relation to the planning and management of the coastal region. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5897
No. 4 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert after line 13:
[2] Section 6 Administration
Omit the section.
[3] Section 36 Administration
Omit the section.
No. 5 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert after line 15:
[3] Section 37A Implementation of principles of ecologically sustainable development
Omit "have regard to". Insert instead "promote".
No. 6 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert before line 16:
[3] Section 38 General supervision of coastal zone
Insert before section 38 (1) (c):
(b1) be inconsistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development, or
[4] Section 39 Special provisions respecting coastal development
Insert before section 39 (4) (a):
(a1) be inconsistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development, or
[5] Section 44 Matters for consideration in relation to concurrence
Insert before section 44 (a):
(a1) be inconsistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development, or
No. 7 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert before line 16:
[4] Section 54 Administration
Omit the section.
No. 8 Page 3, Schedule 1. Insert before line 16:
[5] Section 54A Implementation of principles of ecologically sustainable development
Omit "have regard to". Insert instead "promote".
No. 9 Page 3, Schedule 1 [3], line 18;
page 3, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55B, lines 24 and 27.
Insert "zone" before "management' wherever occurring.
No. 10 Page 3, Schedule 1 [3], line 26. Omit "and who is directed to do so by the Minister must". Insert instead "may, and must, if directed to do so by the Minister,".
No. 11 Page 3, Schedule 1 [3]. Insert after line 28:
(2) Two or more councils whose areas adjoin may decide to join in the making of a coastal zone management plan in accordance with this Part.
(3) If, under subsection (2), two or more councils decide to join in the making of a coastal zone management plan, a reference in this Part:
(a) to a council includes a reference to those councils, and
(b) to an area includes a reference to the areas of those councils.
No. 12 Page 4, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55C, lines 1 and 2.
Insert "zone" before "management' wherever occurring.
No. 13 Page 4, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55C (2), lines 16Β18. Omit all words on those lines. 5898 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
No. 14 Page 4, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55D, lines 19 and 20;
page 4, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55E, lines 27 and 31;
page 5, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55F, lines 3 and 6;
page 5, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55G, lines 10 and 12;
page 5, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55H, lines 13, 14 and 16;
page 5, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55I, lines 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23;
page 5, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55J, lines 24 and 25;
page 6, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55K, lines 2, 4 and 8;
page 6, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55L, lines 10, 13, 15, 16, 22, 25 and 28;
page 6, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55M, line 29.
Insert "zone" before "management" wherever occurring.
No. 15 Page 7, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55M (1) (c) (ii), line 10. Insert "not being a structure lawfully erected before the commencement of this section," after "beach,".
No. 16 Page 8, Schedule 1 [3], proposed section 55N (1) (a), line 9. Insert "or which adjoins the tidal waters of Sydney Harbour or Botany Bay, or their tributaries," after "coastal zone,".
No. 17 Page 9, Schedule 1. Insert before line 4:
[4] Section 56A
Insert before section 57:
56A Restoration orders
(1) The Land and Environment Court, in proceedings under this Act, may order a person to take such steps as are specified in the order, within such time as is so specified (or such further time as the Court on application may allow):
(a) to prevent, control, abate or mitigate any harm to the environment or any loss of amenity caused by anything done or omitted to be done by the person, or
(b) to make good any resulting environmental damage, or
(c) to prevent the continuance or recurrence of any such harm to the environment or any such loss of amenity.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the Court may order a person to remove or clean up material dumped during a beach erosion event.
(3) In this section, environment and harm have the same meanings as in the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
No. 18 Page 9, Schedule 1. Insert after line 6:
[5] Section 58 (1)
Omit "10 penalty units". Insert instead "100 penalty units".
[6] Section 58 (2)
Omit "2 penalty units". Insert instead "10 penalty units".
No. 19 Pages 9 and 10, Schedule 1 [6], proposed clause 3, lines 14, 16, 19 and 24 on page 9 and line 1 on page 10.
Insert "zone" before "management" wherever occurring.
No. 20 Page 11, Schedule 2. Omit the Schedule.
No. 21 Long title. Omit "to amend the Crown Lands Act 1989 with respect to easements for public access."
Legislative Council's amendments agreed to on motion by Mr Aquilina.
Resolution reported from Committee and report adopted.
Message sent to the Legislative Council advising it of the resolution. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5899
CONSUMER CREDIT ADMINISTRATION AMENDMENT (FINANCE BROKERS) BILL
Second Reading
Debate resumed from 24 September.
Mr DEBNAM (Vaucluse) [10.03 a.m.]: I advise honourable members at the outset that the Opposition will not oppose this bill. The Minister's second reading speech is an extensive discussion of the pros and cons of the bill and the review, and I do not intend taking exception to any aspect of it. The point that the Minister made is that brokers have become an important part of the finance industry. This bill results from the national competition policy review of the Credit (Finance Brokers) Act 1984. That review has made a number of recommendations and the Minister has implemented them in this amendment bill. It is obvious that the issue in the bill as to who the broker was working for had to be clarified. This bill has done it: the broker is working for the consumer. Various sections of the industry still have concerns about the need for better or more regulation in this particular sector but that appears to relate more to barriers in entry to the industry.
The big question again is how this amendment will operate in future years. The Opposition will not oppose the bill today but it will be watching very closely what happens with this legislation in the near future, remembering again that the Government's record on managing regulation of industries is not good. The Home Warranty Scheme has been a disaster for five years and it is one that this Minister has inherited from several other Ministers. The problem with the Home Warranty Scheme started back in 1996 when the Minister, the Hon. Faye Lo Po', decided to privatise the insurance of home warranty and also made changes to regulations. That is what we are seeing here; we are seeing further changes in the regulatory framework in home warranty that proved over five years to be a major disaster. I hope that this one fares a lot better. We will be watching it very closely. With those few words I will say again, the Opposition will not oppose the bill.
Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone—Minister for Land and Water Conservation, and Minister for Fair Trading) [10.05 a.m.]: I thank the honourable member for Vaucluse and the Opposition for their support for this legislation. I also thank them for their comments acknowledging that this legislation is consensus legislation. As I pointed out specifically in a detailed and analytical second reading speech, we have moved into new times and we have new aspects relating to how we deal fairly with finance brokers. It would appear that at this stage we have uniformity and agreement on the provisions of this legislation.
I am sure that the Opposition has canvassed those who have a vested interest in this legislation to assure themselves that they are satisfied with what the legislation attempts to do. I note the comments made by the honourable member for Vaucluse that the Opposition intends to watch how the legislation operates. Obviously the Government will continue to do that as well. Quite often it takes a fair bit of time for this kind of legislation to set in, so we will be watching it over an extensive period of time to make sure that it operates correctly and appropriately. I thank the Opposition for its support and commend the legislation to the House.
Motion agreed to.
Bill read a second time and passed through remaining stages.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Routine of Business: Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders
Mr WHELAN (Strathfield—Parliamentary Secretary) [10.08 a.m.]: I move:
That standing and sessional orders be suspended to provide for the following routine of business at this sitting:
(1) Private members' statements to be taken from 11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
(2) The routine of business to proceed at 2.15 p.m., with the exception of question without notice, which will take place at 4.30 p.m.
(3) At the conclusion of questions without notice the House will adjourn without motion until Tuesday 29 October 2002 at 2.15 a.m.
I have discussed this motion with the honourable member for Epping. However, I omitted to say to him—and this is already apparent from the business paper—that the Callan Park (Special Provisions) Bill will be introduced and the Minister for Small Business will move that it be read a second time and deliver the second reading speech. That is the only issue about which I did not advise the honourable member for Epping. The two major matters are that question time will be at 4.30 p.m., when the Premier has returned from Canberra, and the House will adjourn until Tuesday 29 October. 5900 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Mr TINK (Epping) [10.11 a.m.]: I make a few comments. First, the decision to have question time at 4.30 p.m. is an extraordinary one by the Government. On many occasions the Federal Parliament under the current Government has sat when the Prime Minister has been on pressing overseas business. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, has assumed the office of Acting Prime Minister and has handled himself extremely competently during question time and for all other parliamentary purposes. In the past few days both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have been in Bali while Parliament has been sitting, and the Acting Prime Minister for all parliamentary purposes, including a full question time, was the Treasurer of Australia, again doing an excellent and highly competent job.
One has to compare that with the arrangement today. With the Premier away from Sydney, he plainly has no confidence in his Deputy Premier or the Minister next in line—who, I understand, is the Minister for Health—to run Parliament as Acting Premier in his absence for a properly constituted question time at 2.15 p.m. It is confirmation, in my view, that this Government is, as the public understands it to be, a one-man band and without the Premier the Government has no confidence in anybody to run the affairs of Parliament and to be accountable in Parliament for the actions of the Government.
To put it another way, I do not think the Premier or the people in the Premier's Office have any confidence in the ability of the Deputy Premier or the Minister for Health to be able to spin out the issues as the Government spins them out through the Premier. Obviously the Premier does not believe that the Deputy Premier or the Minister for Health are able to calibrate the spin cycle machine in the Chamber to be able to withstand Opposition probing about what the Government is up to. That is an indictment on the depth and capacity of the Government to be accountable in Parliament in the Premier's absence or to be able in any way to run the Premier's lines of disinformation on a whole range of issues that are rapidly getting out of hand.
The second point I wish to make relates to the Callan Park bill, and the cat is really out of the bag now. It was put forward, at the beginning of the week, as a private member's bill in a very rare moment of honesty by the Minister for Small Business. This was going to be her bill, belatedly to acknowledge that the Government had made a terrible miscalculation about Callan Park, basically having taken fright from the Green vote in the Cunningham by-election on the weekend. The Government is now turning true to type and is using its numbers to quash private member's day, to quash any capacity on the part of the Opposition to bring forward and have debated, as it has flagged for a long time, our Callan Park legislation. It will not allow the Minister for Small Business to bring on a private member's bill, because she would then have to take her place in the queue behind the Opposition proposals.
The Government has put to the sword a whole private member's day solely for the purpose of closing down the Opposition initiative on the Callan Park bill. It is bringing the Minister for Small Business into the House in a pretty humiliating way to run her bill up the flagpole as government business. So, one-third of Parliament, including the Independents and members of the Liberal and National parties, have had their private members' privileges cancelled for a day. That has occurred to allow the Minister for Small Business to leapfrog over a highly embarrassing reminder that there was a bill before Parliament that she had no time for until she took fright on Saturday night from the disaster in Cunningham. That disaster occurred despite the best efforts of the Premier to run a half-baked law and order campaign, running around police stations on the South Coast with his Federal leader, using police stations and police officers as a backdrop to run a pathetic crossover campaign on public safety. They got the drubbing they absolutely deserved.
Motion agreed to.
CALLAN PARK (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) BILL
Bill introduced and read a first time.
Second Reading
Ms NORI (Port Jackson—Minister for Small Business, Minister for Tourism and Minister for Women) [10.17 a.m.]: I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
I am pleased to speak on this bill knowing that I have the full support of the Government in enshrining in law the public ownership of the Rozelle Hospital site and defining future uses to exclude the type of private development that was the focus of community concern. This legislation means Callan Park is protected forever 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5901 and a day under a Labor government. The basis of this debate has moved a long way since the Minister for Health first formed his intention to close Rozelle Hospital and replace it with a state-of-the-art mental health facility at Concord hospital.
I am informed that after two years of negotiations the Department of Health and Leichhardt council failed to agree on terms of reference for the master plan. The Minister for Health finally asked the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning to call the matter in and become the consent authority for development of the master plan so the community consultation process could begin. At the heart of the matter was the desire of the Department of Health to retrieve from the sale of a portion of the site sufficient money to build a replacement hospital. This was a basic condition the master plan had to meet.
From the beginning of the debate the Government also accepted the basic conditions I put on behalf of my electorate—that there was to be no loss of open space on the site and that the heritage buildings, the heritage gardens and the foreshore were to be preserved. I also indicated to the Government that my support was conditional on the final shape of the master plan and how it impacted on my electorate. When the draft master plan was released, I was unhappy—
Mr Humpherson: Point of order: In addressing the House, Ministers and members are obliged to tell the full truth, particularly in relation to private members' bills. What we need to know is whether the Minister is lying now or has been lying for the past four years.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! That is not a point of order. I request the honourable member for Davidson to withdraw the term "lying".
Mr O'Farrell: Point of order—
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! I will not hear a further point of order. In accordance with the standing orders the Chair has asked the honourable member for Davidson to withdraw the word "lying". Will he do so?
Ms NORI: Mr Acting-Speaker, I am in the middle of delivering a second reading speech. I request that this gentleman withdraw—
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! As I declined to hear a point of order from the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai, I will not accept a point of order from the Minister.
Mr Humpherson: I have a feeling that offence may have been taken by the honourable members of the House or the Minister. As far as any offence taken by the Chair or the House is concerned, that was not the intention, and any inference in that respect I withdraw.
Ms NORI: When the master plan was released I was unhappy about the scale and density of the area proposed for sale and development. For the benefit of the honourable member for Davidson, if he knew anything about this issue, there is plenty of celluloid of my making it absolutely clear that I wanted a minimum 20 per cent reduction in the proposed development. That was because the reality I faced at that time was that Health was still intent on the basic principles of sale and development of a portion of the site. Of course, I sought to minimise the impact of that reality by calling for at least a 20 per cent reduction in the area subject to sale and development. But the more I consulted and the more I looked at the details of the draft master plan the more I believed that the traffic issue simply had not been adequately addressed.
I believed, and still believe, that there was no cogent plan to mitigate the effect of the extra traffic the development would generate, especially in Glover Street and those streets on the western boundary of the site, and indeed on the opposite side from Manning Street. Residents in those and nearby streets felt that they would bear a great deal of the burden of the development, which was undeniable. In the end, this was the issue that really tipped the balance for me. So I started advocating within Government and my volunteer Callan Park Community Working Group for the other permissible uses within the master plan. Other permissible uses within the master plan included health, aged care, education and community uses, all of which already occur within the grounds.
In turn, the Government came towards the view that it might as well go down that path and make those the only uses. In September the Government made its final decision that this was the best course of action. On 5902 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 the basis of the Government's support for my alternative proposal it agreed to withdraw the master plan. Parliamentary Counsel began drafting my private member’s bill, which I received on 14 October in draft form. The dilemma for me—from the start—is that I felt that the principles of good government demanded that I find a position that balanced the rights and needs of my electorate and the rights and needs of this State's mental health patients. I fully accept that the Government cannot continue to maintain a nineteenth century hospital as the centrepiece of the State's mental health services. I have seen and accept local and international expert opinion—including from the World Health Organisation—that institutionalised, isolated care such as that provided at Rozelle is inappropriate in the twenty-first century for people with mental illness.
The staff-elected member on the Central Sydney Area Health Board, Charlie Linsell, said that most of the buildings are actually counter-therapeutic. The care and dedication of doctors, nurses and other staff at the hospital mitigate this to some extent, but it is just not good enough and it needs to change. So I am delighted to say that despite the abandonment of the master plan—despite the Government's decision to keep this site in full public ownership—the development of the new hospital at Concord will continue unaltered. The difference is that its cost will not be met from the Rozelle Hospital site.
As I said in an early letter to my constituents, the future of this important and historic site required "a full process of meaningful public consultation; that is, consultation that can influence the outcome". The Government's support for this bill makes it quite clear that it took this commitment seriously. Even though the community debate has been emotional and heated at times, I am grateful to those people who took the time to convey their views to me or to make personal submissions on the draft master plan. Although the solution was not found within the master plan, I strongly believe the process itself was important. It meant a wide range of information and public opinion was gathered and aired, which proved important in allowing the Government to reach its final decision on how to proceed in a way that satisfied both local residents and mental health needs.
I turn now to the detail of the bill. There are five objects of the bill, which will ensure continued public ownership of, and access to, Callan Park. As the objects state, the bill will ensure the preservation of open space at Callan Park. It will allow public access to that open space, including the harbour foreshore. It will allow public access for both active and passive recreation. The bill will preserve the heritage significance of Callan Park and will impose appropriate controls on future development. Clause 5 of the bill guarantees that all of Callan Park will remain in public ownership. Under clause 5, Callan Park may be transferred only to another statutory body representing the Crown that is subject to the direction and control of the Minister. Clause 5 also prohibits leases of any part of Callan Park, except as expressly permitted by the bill.
Clause 6 permits leases or licences of buildings or land to be granted with the Minister's consent. Clause 6, however, requires the Minister to engage in extensive public advertising and consultation on any proposed lease or licence. Clause 6 also permits the management of Callan Park or any part of it to be contracted out with the Minister's consent. This provision recognises that the Crown body that owns Callan Park might not always have the right expertise or resources to best manage the site. There are two important restrictions on the ability to contract out management of Callan Park. First, the extensive public advertising and consultation provisions that apply to leases also apply before the Minister is allowed to consent to a proposed management contract. The second restriction is that the management of Callan Park may be contracted only to the local government area in which Callan Park is situated or to some other body specifically formed to manage Callan Park.
Clause 7 sets out the key restrictions on development at Callan Park. The provisions in clause 7 override the environmental planning instruments that otherwise apply to the site. Under clause 7 development is permitted, with development consent, for the purposes of health care facilities, aged care facilities, educational facilities and community facilities. It is important to note, however, that in permitting such uses, clause 7 also limits buildings at Callan Park to the footprints of existing buildings. It specifically prevents any reduction in the amount of open space and it specifically prevents any increase in the total floor area of buildings at Callan Park.
This bill ensures that Callan Park will retain its character as a health and community facility. The need for adequate aged care facilities is an increasingly important issue throughout Australia. It is a particular need in Sydney's inner west, including my electorate of Port Jackson. There are many local elderly people who at present have limited options for staying in the area they know and love, and I am sure most of them would prefer to stay in the area when they reach the stage of needing aged care. Aged care has already been raised as a possibility for the site, and Callan Park may well present an ideal opportunity for providing essential aged care service facilities in the inner west. However, I emphasise that clause 7 of the bill specifically rules out State environmental planning policy 5 on aged care and disability housing. Under my bill, there is no way that we will end up with the monstrosity of the 400-bed privately funded hospital that the Leader of the Opposition has promised to build at Callan Park, which inter alia would also have chewed up more of the open space. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5903
Mr Humpherson: Point of order: The Minister has just made an assertion that is entirely without any foundation in truth. The assertion of the Opposition's position is incorrect, and I ask the Minister to withdraw it.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! A disagreement with a statement of the Minister does not give rise to a point of order. Clearly, the Opposition will have an opportunity to correct the record if it wishes to do so.
Mr Humpherson: It is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of truth.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: The Chair cannot make a judgement about that. As I said, there is no point of order.
Ms NORI: I refer the honourable member for Davidson to the words of Chris Puplick, who is a key person in the Central Sydney Area Health Service. In assessing the Opposition's proposal, Mr Puplick said that if a new hospital were to be rebuilt at Rozelle it would chew up at least 10 hectares of the public open space. So I am relying on Mr Puplick's advice. Clause 7 also specifically protects the important gardens in Callan Park. The Broughton Hall Garden, known locally as the Japanese gardens, the Charles Moore Garden and the Kirkbride Garden are each named in and protected by the bill. Under clause 7, the consent authority is required to consider the objects of the bill when determining a development application. This means that public and foreshore access and heritage issues will be considered in every development application.
Clause 8 enables regulations to establish a community consultation committee for Callan Park, and clause 9 ensures that the bill will not affect the application of the Heritage Act to Callan Park. It protects and enhances an important public place. It ensures that this important public place cannot be ruined by massive overdevelopment with the Opposition's proposed 400-bed hospital. This bill has been made possible because the Government has found the money needed to build a vital first-class mental health facility at Concord without needing to sell part of Callan Park. An electorate like Port Jackson, so near the centre of the city, faces many challenges as Sydney grows larger. For instance, Balmain peninsula has seen great changes over the past 20 years. Traditionally, this has been an area that combined industrial and residential use in a unique mix. Recent years have seen most industries move out—Colgate Palmolive and Unilever are just two examples—and residential development move in.
Under a previous Government and a previous local member, the so-called five sites development was set in place, and residents see on a daily basis the gross overdevelopment on some of those sites. No doubt this made the Rozelle Hospital debate a particularly resonant and fraught one. Despite Government commitments restricting the nature of any development, residents feared a duplication of existing monstrosities. I know that this has been a large factor in forming local attitudes, and I understand the reasons for this apprehension. During this whole process I have spoken to many people in my electorate, I have visited the site many times and I have spoken door to door with many residents, especially those near the hospital.
While no outcome would ever satisfy everyone, I am convinced, through my wide consultation, that this bill provides a solution that will satisfy the majority of residents in my electorate. Added to that, the new mental health facility at Concord will mean that for the first time patients will have ready access to the host of diagnostic and specialist care that holistic health care demands and that this Government wishes to provide. In the days since my announcement on Sunday it is interesting to note that the only people who have been disappointed by my bill and my proposal are those like the Leader of the Opposition, the honourable member for Davidson, other Opposition members, some members of Friends of Callan Park and other elements in the electorate who have one thing uniting them: They have only ever seen this issue as a political football.
If the Leader of the Opposition, Opposition members and the Friends of Callan Park who join him had anything other than a basic political interest they would know that the plan to retain a mental health facility at Rozelle, whether it be new or within the existing buildings, is totally inappropriate. Anyone who gave a tinker's cuss about mental health could not have put forward that proposition. The Leader of the Opposition should know, if he does not, as should the member for Davidson, some Friends of Callan Park and others who have joined the Opposition in treating this issue as a political football, that the World Health Organization has said:
One of the key messages to governments is that mental asylums, where they still exist, must be closed down …
They would also know that the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said in September that "institutionalised isolated care is not appropriate for individuals with mental health problems" and that the college supports the "co-location of mental health facilities with general hospital services". They should have 5904 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 known that Dr Victor Storm, Clinical Director, Mental Health Services, Central Sydney Area Health Service, has said that the delays in the development of a new hospital at Concord "only place patients and staff at risk". They would also know that Charles Linsell, a senior nurse educator with the Central Sydney Area Health Service and staff-elected representative on the area health service board, has said that the Opposition leader's plan to develop a privately funded mental hospital on the site is "a knee-jerk, ill-conceived proposal" and "a sham". There are two distinguishing features of this bill, amongst others floating around that purport to deal with this site. The most important of those distinguishing features may not seem to be a significant difference but it is such a telltale sign about the Opposition, especially the Leader of the Opposition, who claims to be a Balmain boy.
The fine print clearly states that the bill provides for both passive and active recreation on the site. Anyone who takes community consultation seriously, as I do, would know about the strength of junior sport in the Balmain district within the Leichhardt municipality and would know from the clamouring of soccer organisations, the Balmain Junior Rugby League Club and baseball teams when the time comes that they all want to be able to use ovals that have been on the hospital site for some time. Those ovals, however, could not be used because they were so close to accommodation housing patients that their use would not have been fair on the patients. The patients are already making submissions and plans—they have certainly made submissions to me—begging that the site also provide some opportunity for active recreation and sporting facilities, particularly for kids.
That may not be the most significant concern in people's minds when they turn to the Callan Park issue and the whole debate that has taken place over the past several months—indeed, it is probably 18 months. However, it is indicative of the telltale signs that distinguish the participants in this debate—those who took seriously the issue of redeveloping the site, and those for whom it was only ever a political football. I am proud to introduce this bill, particularly the section that refers to active recreational uses on the site, because my bill, and my bill alone, takes into account the needs of the whole electorate. At all times I have attempted to find a solution to a very difficult issue, that is, the need to find a means by which we could develop a new state-of-the- art hospital at Concord—in other words, taking an interest in the needs of people with mental health problems— and also to find a solution that would not impose unacceptable levels of development in my electorate. I commend the bill to the House.
Debate adjourned on motion by Mr Humpherson.
CITY OF SYDNEY AMENDMENT (ELECTORAL ROLLS) BILL
Second Reading
Debate resumed from 25 September.
Mr DEBNAM (Vaucluse) [10.40 a.m.]: The Opposition will not oppose the City of Sydney Amendment (Electoral Rolls) Bill. However, I indicate that amendments will be moved in the other place to clarify some of the provisions of this bill. The objects of the bill are threefold. They are:
(a) to clarify that the roll of non-resident owners of rateable land and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees prepared for an election for the City of Sydney lapse after the election for which they are prepared, and
(b) to provide that information on the lapsed rolls is to be used to prepare a mailout by the Electoral Commissioner to electors, and to corporations and firms that nominated electors, notifying them of the next election and that an application may be needed for inclusion of an elector on the relevant rolls for the next election, and
(c) to require the Electoral Commissioner to send the mailout at least 60 days before the closing date for enrolment for the election.
The Minister for Local Government claimed in his second reading speech that this bill is part of the Government's ongoing commitment to, in his words, "a transparent and effective legislative framework for the administration of local government". Clearly, many in the community would take issue with that claim, especially considering the Carr Government's handling of the other major issue facing the City of Sydney at the moment, that is, the boundary changes. That is not directly related to this bill, but I am sure that the Minister's handling of the boundary change process will be canvassed at a future time. Under the City of Sydney Act the job of preparing rolls for elections of councillors and the Lord Mayor is given to the State Electoral Commissioner. That stance was endorsed by the 1998 Fisher report into the Sydney City Council election procedure and was advocated by many submissions to the inquiry, including submissions from the Lord Mayor, Frank Sartor, and the Joint Business Commission. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5905
In the case of other councils that operate under the Local Government Act 1993, the job of preparing rolls falls to the general manager. The difference between the preparation of rolls for the city and for other councils recognises the unique nature of the make-up of the city's electoral roll, differences that I will outline in a moment. The purpose of the amendments to the City of Sydney Act is to clarify the procedure used by the Electoral Commission for the preparation of the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees. Apparently the necessity for this amendment arises from an ambiguity as to what data the Electoral Commission uses to prepare the rolls. Under section 18A of the City of Sydney Act the Electoral Commissioner is required to prepare the rolls for an election for the City of Sydney.
Under section 18A the commissioner is also required to send a letter to persons on each roll at least three months before the closing date for an election informing them that they are electors. This is where the ambiguity arises. The City of Sydney Act is to be read as part of the principal Act, which in this case is the Local Government Act. Sections in that Act specifically state that the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees lapse after the election for which they are prepared. Therefore, the question has arisen as to whether the relevant parts of the City of Sydney Act override the Local Government Act, and whether the rolls lapse or continue to exist from election to election. It also raises the question of what information the commissioner is to use in preparing the rolls by way of notification.
The Government's key proposal in this bill, that of specifying that the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees lapse after the election for which they are prepared, would bring the City of Sydney into line with all other local government councils. However, the amendment does not take into account the somewhat unique nature of the content of the rolls for the City of Sydney. I have been informed that at the 1999 local government election the total number of electors for the City of Sydney was 7,500 residential and 5,000 non-residential. For the election prior to that the enrolment was 4,000 residential and 8,000 non- residential.
Those figures highlight the difference between electors of the City of Sydney and electors in a typical local government area. The city has a high proportion of non-residential electors, while any other local government area would have a higher proportion of residential electors and a smaller enrolment of non- residential electors. So why do those rolls have to lapse after the election for which they are prepared? Why do the rolls have to be effectively wiped and just kept as a mailing list in the bottom drawer of the Electoral Commission? A concern has been put to the Opposition that the effect of lapsing the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees could have the unintended consequence of creating an ever-decreasing pool of non-resident electors. The figures I have outlined above are testament to that concern.
The Opposition believes that the Government should recognise the unique nature of the City of Sydney in terms of the electoral process, and should be making it as easy as possible for people wishing to be enrolled as electors on the non-resident roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees. Those issues were well canvassed in the Fisher report in 1998, and several parliamentarians and political parties had input into the inquiry and report. The Opposition contends that the provisions of the bill, coupled with the current arrangements for elections for the City of Sydney, make it difficult for potential electors to get onto the roll. We seek an explanation from the Minister as to why the rolls for the city cannot be kept open between elections, with periodic updates such as those that are made to rolls for electors eligible to vote for State and Federal elections.
Unless the Minister can provide a satisfactory explanation, as well as a guarantee that the amendments will not result in decreasing enrolments and difficulties in administrative processes for getting onto the rolls for the City of Sydney elections, the Opposition will move amendments in the upper House to clarify that the rolls remain open after the election for which they are prepared. Those amendments will also specify that new electors can be added to the rolls. Put simply, we are, firstly, seeking to make it easy for eligible electors to get onto the rolls for the city, and, secondly, attempting to reduce the administrative impact of virtually throwing away a detailed roll and starting from scratch prior to each election.
The preparation of a fresh roll by the Electoral Commissioner would be an expensive process, and the cost of that exercise is recoverable from the council under current legislation. Why cannot the Government make it easy? The proposed amendment seeking to shorten the period for notification by the Electoral Commission from 90 days to 60 days is consistent with provisions of the Local Government Act 1993, and the Opposition supports that amendment. The Minister has indicated that the reduction in the notification period is to ensure that the duties of the Electoral Commissioner in preparing the City of Sydney's rolls do not clash with his duties in respect of the 2003 State election. That is appropriate. The Minister tried to lay blame for current ambiguities in the City of Sydney Act on amendments made during consideration of the Local Government Legislation Amendment (Elections) Bill 1998. 5906 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
The Minister should recall that bill with some caution, as it was that bill which sought to introduce a virtual gerrymander into the election procedures for the City of Sydney. It was not the amendments that were the problem with that bill, it was the bill put forward by the former Minister and the Labor Party that was the problem. In conclusion, I repeat that the Opposition will not oppose the bill in this House. However, we will seek to amend it when it reaches the upper House along the lines I have outlined. The Opposition looks forward to satisfactory explanations from the Minister to the questions and issues that I have raised. I look forward to his response.
Mr BARTLETT (Port Stephens) [10.59 a.m.]: I support the City of Sydney Amendment (Electoral Rolls) Bill, which is a bill for an Act to amend the City of Sydney Act 1988 and the Local Government Act 1993 to make further provision for electoral rolls in connection with elections for the Council of the City of Sydney, and for other purposes. Sydney elections always seem to be very interesting. I guess that is because the City of Sydney plays such an important part in the cultural and economic life of New South Wales in general.
The bill proposes to amend the City of Sydney Act 1998 to clarify the procedures for the preparation of the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees for elections for the City of Sydney. Currently three rolls are used to compile the list of electors who are eligible to vote in the City of Sydney elections—residential, non-residential, and occupiers and ratepaying lessees. Big shopping centres sometimes make lessees of the shops pay all the bills, so occupiers, even though they are not the owners, are paying the rates. Residential rolls are compiled from data from the Australian Electoral Commission, and section 18A of the City of Sydney Act presently requires the State Electoral Commissioner to prepare the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees for council elections.
A legal uncertainty has arisen, and this bill is designed to address that uncertainty in time for the September 2003 local government elections. This amending bill will clarify that the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees will lapse after the election for which they were prepared, in accordance with the principal Act. This will ensure consistency with all council elections in New South Wales. The bill will effect a technical amendment and has been introduced because of the need for clarification of a legal uncertainty. It is also proposed that the information from the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees will form the basis of a mail-out by the Electoral Commissioner which will advise electors of the requirements for claiming inclusion on the roll for the City of Sydney election. It is also proposed that the Electoral Commissioner will send the letter at least 60 days before the closing date for the council election to allow adequate time for people to claim enrolment. All in all, this bill is purely of a technical nature. It is certainly not an attempt to disfranchise anybody. It merely clarifies a legal uncertainty. I commend the bill to the House.
Mr GREENE (Georges River) [10.51 a.m.]: I support the City of Sydney Amendment (Electoral Rolls) Bill. The aim of the bill is to ensure that the democratic process of elections for the Council of the City of Sydney is carried out to best allow this important level of government to remain representative of the community it serves. This amending bill seeks to clarify provisions relating to the creation of electoral rolls for the purpose of elections for the Council of the City of Sydney under the City of Sydney Act 1988. Under the Local Government Act, the general manager of a local council usually prepares electoral rolls for the purpose of local council elections. However, the City of Sydney Act specifically gives this function to the State Electoral Commission. The amendments provided in the bill will clarify the procedure by which the Electoral Commissioner prepares the roll of non-residential voters and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees for the elections for the Council of the City of Sydney.
The necessity for the amendments arises from ambiguity in the data that the Electoral Commissioner will use to prepare the rolls. Section 18A of the City of Sydney Act presently requires the Electoral Commissioner to prepare the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees for elections of the City of Sydney council. The Electoral Commissioner is also required by section 18A (3) to send a letter to persons whose names appear on each roll at least three months before the closing date for an election informing them that they are electors. However, the operation of the provision is unclear. Section 3 of the City of Sydney Act provides that the Act is to be read as though it forms part of the Local Government Act 1993, the principal Act. Section 299 and section 300 of the principal Act provide that the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees will lapse after the election for which they were prepared.
The essential question of interpretation is whether section 18A overrides the principal Act and therefore whether the rolls lapse or continue to exist from election to election. While section 3 (3) of the City of Sydney Act provides that, in the event of inconsistency between that Act and the principal Act, the City of Sydney Act 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5907 shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency, there is still some concern over the interpretation. This amending bill will clarify that issue. It is important for this issue to be resolved because the lack of clarity in the present position may jeopardise the result of any elections for the City of Sydney council. The Electoral Commissioner has expressed concern about the present provision in view of the contentious nature of elections for the council, and has received advice from the Crown Solicitor highlighting the uncertainty of the interpretation of section 18A. Previously that was not a problem because the 1999 local government elections were the first time that the non-residential roll had been prepared under section 18A and the issue of the lapsing of the roll from the previous election did not arise.
Uncertainty in the provisions relating to the preparation of electoral rolls may leave the entire electoral process for the council open to legal challenge by persons who disagree with the Electoral Commissioner's approach to discharging his or her duties. The Electoral Commissioner has obtained advice from the Crown Solicitor that has highlighted the uncertainty of the interpretation of section 18A. The amendments provided in this bill will insert a provision to clarify that the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees will lapse after the election for which they were prepared. This is consistent with the practice for all other local government elections. The intent of this proposal is also to ensure that non-resident electors and electors who are occupiers and ratepaying lessees are provided with every opportunity to claim inclusion on the roll for elections for the City of Sydney.
The bill will allow information on the rolls which were prepared for a previous election to be used by the Electoral Commissioner to send enrolment information, by letter, to persons who again may wish to seek inclusion on the non-residential roll and the roll of occupiers and ratepaying lessees. The purpose of the enrolment information letter is to provide all electors with the best opportunity of becoming enrolled for council elections. The letter will provide notice of the requirements for claiming inclusion on the rolls and information on the availability and lodgment of claim forms. The letter will be sent at least 60 days before the closing date for an election for the council to allow adequate time for persons to claim enrolment, and to prevent the duty of sending the letter from clashing with the Electoral Commissioner's State election duties. Because the roll for the council elections must close at the end of July—40 days prior to an election—the Electoral Commissioner would have to begin preparing the roll in April, and that would clash with his duties in the State election. That is why the period has been altered to 60 days.
This amendment also brings the provision into line with the 60 days within which general managers have to prepare the rolls for all other council elections under the Local Government (Elections) Regulation 1998. All persons must lodge a claim of enrolment with the Electoral Commissioner so that no favourable franchise is created for any group of electors. The amending bill also retains the independence of the Electoral Commissioner, as the Electoral Commissioner is not required to make judgments about interpretation of the method of implementation of section 18A. It is critical to the effective operation of elections for the council that the Electoral Commissioner is perceived by the community to be independent in the enrolment process.
The present difficulty of section 18A may be attributed to a series of amendments that were made to the Government's initial proposal during parliamentary debate on the Local Government Legislation Amendment (Elections) Bill 1998. The majority of the members of the Legislative Council supported the principles that non- residential electors should be required to apply for enrolment at each election and that the roll should lapse after each election. These principles are maintained in the bill. The defeat of the Government's proposals in 1998 may be attributed to other features of the Local Government Legislation Amendment (Elections) Bill, such as the preparation of the rolls by the general manager of the City of Sydney—which is now done by the Electoral Commissioner—and the date by which the letter must be sent. That bill had proposed a one-month period prior to the closing date for enrolment, and that period will be extended to 60 days by this bill. I commend the bill to the House.
Debate adjourned on motion by Mr Moss.
RURAL LANDS PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILL
Second Reading
Debate resumed from 23 October.
Mr WHELAN (Strathfield—Parliamentary Secretary), on behalf of Mr Amery [10.59 a.m.], in reply: Unfortunately, the Minister for Agriculture is unable to be here. However, he has asked me to convey his thanks 5908 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 to all honourable members who contributed to the debate, particularly those representing the electorates of Lachlan, Bathurst, Monaro, Murray-Darling, Cessnock and Tweed, for their positive speeches. They are indicative of the high regard in which the rural lands protection boards [RLPB] are held, undoubtedly due to good service provided by the staff of individual boards and the dedication of board members. The Minister wishes to thank the honourable member for Bathurst for reminding the House about the new computer system, to which the Government is contributing $3.5 million, that will do much to help veterinarians, rangers, and the administrative and other staff of each board.
Many speakers, especially from the Government side, highlighted the New South Wales Government's $5.4 million contribution to the National Livestock Identification Scheme. I agree with them, as an ambitious claim about reducing the number of stolen livestock was made some years ago when I was Minister for Police. I am sure that the honourable member for Lismore, who has championed this initiative, is pleased that the Government has contributed those funds. The money will underpin the boards' work in the area of animal health and will greatly assist the boards and other agencies in the event of an animal disease outbreak. The Minister also wished to thank the honourable member for Lachlan both for his contribution to the debate and for his observation about the need for wider public awareness of the benefits of RLPB rates. The Minister noted the honourable member's suggestion that there must be wider notice of the obligations of land-holders and of property purchasers to pay rates.
It was suggested that the advice of the Chairman of the State Council of Rural Lands Protection Boards, Mr Rowan Moore, should be sought in this regard. That honourable members representing electorates across New South Wales spoke in this debate is indicative of the fact that the rural lands protection boards' good work is widespread. The honourable member for Lachlan also commented on the need to sort out the responsibilities of the various parties involved when stock are moved along travelling stock routes. This issue will be addressed in large part. There are 48 rural lands protection boards in New South Wales that play a key role in animal health, pest animal control, drought management and the management of exotic disease outbreaks. Rural lands protection boards are the front-line insect pest control agencies for agriculture in New South Wales. They are often the first line of defence against animal diseases.
The Premier made two very important announcements at the Country Labor Conference held at Cooma in September 2002. First, the State Government will spend $5.4 million between 2003 and 2006 on installing electronic livestock identification readers across the State; and, second, it will spend a further $3.5 million on a massive upgrading of the computer system currently used by the boards. Honourable members should be aware that the boards administer 600,000 hectares of travelling stock routes across the State. Rural lands protection boards work closely with NSW Agriculture during all phases of a drought. They provide the regular seasonal condition reports that form the basis of the drought declarations issued by the Minister for Agriculture. They have also hosted several drought inspections by the Premier, the Minister for Agriculture and other Ministers. These visits and meetings provide important feedback on the impact of the drought on individual farming households and on the effectiveness of drought assistance measures.
The boards administer the Rural Lands Protection Act 1998, which sets out those species that land- holders must control as pest animals. These include wild rabbits, feral pigs, wild dogs and three species of locusts. Much of the front-line work to control pest animals in New South Wales is undertaken and funded by public and private landowners, with assistance from their rural lands protection boards. My local rural lands protection board gave me extensive advice, particularly about feral rabbits and their eradication. Rabbits can damage properties terribly, particularly during times of drought. Rabait is a product used to eradicate rabbits. Rural lands protection boards require properties to notify neighbours of its use and to display a sign to that effect. That is a very wise requirement, enforced as a result of practical experience that may have involved the untimely deaths of other animals that strayed onto properties and took the bait. That is how I have come to understand, in my small way, the important work of the rural lands protection boards. I commend the bill to the House.
Motion agreed to.
Bill read a second time and passed through remaining stages.
Pursuant to resolution private members' statements taken forthwith. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5909
PRIVATE MEMBERS' STATEMENTS
______
BALI TERRORIST ATTACK
Mr HUNTER (Lake Macquarie) [11.06 a.m.]: Today I offer my condolences to the family and friends of those who tragically lost their lives in the Bali terrorist attack. The bombings of the nightclub and bar in Bali have dramatically affected the whole of Australia and many other countries throughout the world. I join my colleagues who on Tuesday offered their condolences to those affected by the bombings. I shall inform the House about several events that are taking place in Lake Macquarie with regard to that tragedy and about our relationship with Bali. On Wednesday of last week the Lake Macquarie News carried a front-page story headlined "Relatives anxious wait; Bali Terror Special Report", which stated:
People throughout Lake Macquarie face an anxious wait for news of relatives and friends caught up in the weekend's Bali bombing.
The names of dead and seriously wounded people were trickling through on Tuesday morning as The News went to press.
The bombing was condemned by political figures throughout the city.
As people waited for news of loved ones others breathed a sigh of relief that they had left Bali before the horror occurred.
One was Valentine's Jan Ireland, wife of News photographer Graeme Ireland, who returned on Saturday after a week in Bali with their two young children Aili and Drew.
She told how on several occasions during their week-long trip they had walked past the buildings blown apart by the bombs at the weekend.
"It is just horrible to think what might have happened had we still been there," she said this week, back home safe and sound.
Last Friday I spoke to Graeme Ireland, photographer for the Lake Macquarie News, and said that he and his family had been very lucky. He replied that they would have to consider seriously whether to return to Bali in the future as the incident had affected his family dramatically. He said that his young children awoke every morning and went straight to the television to watch news about places where they had enjoyed a holiday only the week before. The article continued:
Many Lake Macquarie residents have already cancelled their holidays to Bali. Major Bali travel wholesaler Venture Holidays Australia, which packages holidays sold through retail travel agencies, will offer full refunds to anyone who has booked a Bali holiday through them and who now wishes to cancel.
Qantas and the Indonesian national carrier Garuda also announced on Monday there would be no cost penalty for any customers who want to cancel, amend or defer plans to visit Bali.
The Australian carrier warned its extra evacuation and aid flights into and out of Bali might disrupt other scheduled services.
Garuda, which will maintain a regular schedule into and out of Indonesia generally and Bali in particular, said the no-charge rule for deferred bookings would apply up to October 27.
The article continued:
Increased police patrols across NSW have been ordered since the devastation in Bali.
Lake Macquarie command, in line with others in the State, will step up surveillance at major infrastructure such as power stations, including Eraring—
which, I might add, is located in the electorate of Lake Macquarie—
Water supplies and other energy facilities and places of worship will also be under special surveillance.
The article further stated:
An urgent call went out this week for blood products.
There will be an increased demand for blood and blood products over the coming days and weeks. Blood has already been sent to Bali with the medical response teams via RAAF flights.
A colleague in Lake Macquarie, Councillor Greg Piper, and I have some close links in Bali. Greg acted immediately and organised a fundraising effort. I, along with a number of members of Parliament, have donated. 5910 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
I believe that Greg is flying to Bali today. As of Tuesday he had collected $18,000 in cash and kind. Donations of cash, amounting to approximately $10,000, are being banked into the Adventist Development Relief Agency, which is a registered charity. Also, three pallets of goods are being transported to Bali free of charge by Garuda Airlines. Acting on advice from Garuda, basic medical supplies, specific medical surgical equipment and linen for hospital use are being sent. I congratulate Greg on his efforts. I know he has a close relationship with Bali. He will be there today overseeing the delivery of the goods. As Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Friendship Group of Parliament I send my best wishes to the people of Bali. Again, I give my condolences to the families and friends of those affected by the bombing. [Time expired.]
LISGAR GARDENS AND MOUNT ERRINGTON PRECINCT
Mrs HOPWOOD (Hornsby) [11.11 a.m.]: There are two extremely important areas in the electorate of Hornsby, both of them to the west of the central business district of the town centre. These are Lisgar Gardens and Mount Errington precinct. Both have immense historical significance and both have been mentioned in a recent review produced by Hornsby Shire Council. I firmly believe that the two areas, connected by geography and historical and local significance, should remain in a form that is protected against destruction of their unique character and overzealous development. The Hornsby West Side Heritage Conservation Area Review was presented to Hornsby Shire Council a few weeks ago and, unfortunately, I was unable to attend that event because of parliamentary duties.
I am very interested in debate about the Hornsby west side area and I have been working with local residents over a number of months to ensure that the precious heritage of the shire, in particular, the Mount Errington precinct—whilst recognising the Pretoria Parade and Peats Ferry Road precinct as equally valuable— is saved and that it is enshrined in protective policies that will prevent the historical value being lost and the unique character of the area from being damaged. I supported the endorsement of the review in its entirety. The review encompassed the necessary components to place the heritage features of the west side of Hornsby in a plan that will ensure the precinct is conserved. We must make sensible decisions about our tangible history and make all efforts to preserve it for future generations. The Hornsby West Side Conservation Area Review encapsulates the essential objectives that will achieve this. Local residents and many in the wider community have worked tirelessly to send a strong message to legislators and decision makers in council that the area is special and one that should be maintained in its current grouping.
This includes fine examples of buildings, as well as quality landscapes and well-established trees and gardens. I look forward to being able to visit the areas designated as significant in the review at any time in the future and to not have to rely on preserved photographs to remember what we should be wise enough to protect on this occasion. All Hornsby councillors endorsed the review. Therefore, this identified that Mount Errington had significant heritage and that Lisgar Gardens would be managed as a separate item with its heritage noted as important. Chris Le Gras, Bruce Moon, Paul Heinrich and many others have been instrumental in the success of that review.
I have recently become a member of the Friends of Lisgar Gardens and I am proud to support this determined and hardworking group of people, who love Lisgar Gardens. It is an immense site full of peaceful bushland, stone walls, flowers and water features. Lisgar Gardens is also known as Hornsby's secret garden. The Friends of Lisgar Gardens are volunteers whose aim is to promote, protect and enhance the gardens and to increase visitors to the area, while giving consideration to the need to preserve the plants and unique features of such a beautiful place. Lisgar Gardens is an area of 2.4 hectares, or six acres, located in Lisgar Road, Hornsby. The gardens are situated in an historical part of Hornsby and contribute to the overall character and beauty of this precinct. The site was purchased in 1917 by Max Cotton—who died in 1967—specifically for the purpose of creating the gardens. Built on a steep hillside, the gardens' different levels were created by the construction of sandstone block walls.
Two years of work saw the completion of these walls and fishponds that added to the charm of the area. The planting of rhododendrons, azaleas, gardenias and other exotic plants in association with native trees, ferns and many varieties of camellias—currently over 90, I am told—along with mass planting of annuals in the formal gardens, make it a delight to spend a few hours in the gardens. Hornsby Shire Council purchased the property in 1967. The name Lisgar Gardens was first used and they were open to the public on 21 September 1968. It is a favourite place for weddings, excursions, photography and general enjoyment. Picnic tables can be used and visitors can participate in a rainforest walk. Annual events include a Teddy Bears Picnic in March and I recently attended the Camellia Gala Day in August. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5911
The Friends of Lisgar Gardens organised a twilight opening a few weeks ago so that the serenity of the gardens could be enjoyed at another time of the day. They have acquired a grant to produce a publication about the gardens. Many people have contributed to the success of these gardens. They include Councillor Gordon Curby, Sir John Young—also known as Baron Lisgar—David Mackay, Ron and Lucy Woodward, Cyril Neville Jago, Jenny Curby, Ruth Gormlie, and Mr and Mrs Prideaux. I recommend that people spend some time in these beautiful gardens as well as in the surrounding heritage precinct whenever they travel to Hornsby. It is well worth the time taken to do so.
NORTHERN RIVERS STUDENT LEADERSHIP FORUM
Mr NEWELL (Tweed) [11.16 a.m.]: On Thursday 17 October I had the great pleasure in my role as the member for Tweed to attend with the Premier, Mr Bob Carr, a student leadership forum held at Wollumbin High School in my electorate. Students attended the forum from the Tweed-Ballina district of the Department of Education and Training. They were representatives of high schools from Kingscliff, Tweed River, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Byron Bay and Ballina, as well as the Southern Cross School and Evans River School, which are K-12 schools. The forum was hosted by Wollumbin High School and I congratulate the students, Jeremy Whiterod, Haylie Lack, Sam Leveridge and Jolyon Bloomfield. They hosted, organised and ran the entire leadership forum and they did a fantastic job.
The forum consisted of a number of activities throughout the morning and the afternoon. The Premier addressed the forum for approximately 30 minutes and then fielded a large number of questions from the 30- plus students who were in attendance. The Premier urged senior students to become involved in the political process on either side of politics, whichever was their leaning. He said that they certainly have a part to play in shaping the nation's future and that he hoped a student attending the forum will visit their school in the future, perhaps Wollumbin High School, as Premier or Prime Minister of the country. From the way the forum was conducted there is every possibility of that occurring.
The forum was organised by Mr Tony Cosgrove from the Department of Education and Training. Later in the afternoon I, with Ms Anne Riddell, the relieving district superintendent for the Tweed Heads/Ballina district of the Department of Education and Training, Mr Darren Scott, the principal of Murwillumbah East Public School, Nicole Latter, former student leader from Wollumbin High School and a university student, and Anne Simpson, president of the Mt Warning Rotary Club, participated in a workshop entitled "Achieving Your Dream". Each of us spoke briefly to the topic and then answered a number of questions from students. A number of students conducted different workshops. They did a great job.
Student Jolyon Bloomfield not only participated in the forum but played Fantasie impromptu by Chopin. His performance was stunning. Everyone who attended the performance, including the Premier, was impressed. Jolyon recently won a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad. We wish him well in his HSC. I have no doubt that he will do very well. Jeremy Whiterod and Haylie Lack, two year 12 students, took time out from their study period to run the forum and participate in it. They certainly deserve our congratulations on the forum and our best wishes in the HSC. I hope the time they dedicated to organising the forum did not detract from their preparation for the HSC. The leadership forum was a fantastic opportunity for students to learn some skills. I have no doubt that Parliament will hear more about it. [Time expired.]
SNOWY RIVER WAY
Mr WEBB (Monaro) [11.21 a.m.]: It is with pleasure that I bring to the attention of the House a wonderful new proposal to promote development and create jobs, and a tourism route in the south-east of the State in the electorate of Monaro, the Snowy River Way. Main Road 394 leads from Ando on the Monaro Highway west toward Dalgety on the banks of the Snowy River. It traverses the Bombala, Cooma Monaro and Snowy River shires and, potentially, is a great tourist road that will provide alternate access to people travelling from the far South Coast of New South Wales and from south-east Victoria to the Snowy Mountains. Travelling via the Alpine Way or the Snowy Mountains Highway this tourism road will provide access to Albury- Wodonga, central and western Victoria, and onto the slopes and western plains of southern New South Wales. It is proposed to rename the road the Snowy River Way in commemoration of its heritage values. The route was pioneered some 170 years ago by farmers taking cattle to Tathra and Eden on the far South Coast for export across the world.
The road will also form part of an exciting new tourism route infrastructure in the Monaro region. Day trips and complete loops that take in Cooma, Bombala, Dalgety and its famous Buckley's River Crossing and the 5912 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Buckley's Crossing Hotel, and onto Jindabyne will enable visitors to take in many interesting and historical places along the way. Some of these areas were settled in the 1830s. Places such as Bungarby and Ironmungy were originally settled by Timothy Baird and his stepson, Joseph Rolfe, my great great grandmother's brother. Places such as Maffra and Jincumbilly became a siding on the Queanbeyan to Bombala railway line. Visitors will also see the Snowy and Maclaughlin rivers and fantastic views of the Southern Alps, the Snowy Mountains to the west and eastward to the coastal escarpment. To the north they will see spectacular landscape views unfold to reveal the Brindabella and Tinderry mountain ranges to the south and east of the Australian Capital Territory. From many high vantage places along the road the 360 degree views continue well to the south into Victoria.
Visitors will also encounter ancient glaciated geological features and the vast expanse of the very good basalt grazing areas, renowned across the nation and the world for quality livestock, very high wool production, sheep and hardy cattle. The road is vital to farmers seeking access to markets in New South Wales and Victoria and as a service route. The region is also becoming known for its broad range of alternate agricultural produce such as cool climate wines and berries, dried produce, trout, rabbit and lavender to name a few. The Snowy Monaro Agricultural Specialty Producers Association has outlets in Bombala and Berridale to promote the many small businesses and ideas currently undertaken. There is timber production both past and present to the south and east, and grazing and farming on the southern plains of the Monaro for which that country is renowned.
The winter snow sports and alpine summer activities—fly fishing, bushwalking, mountain biking and white water rafting, as well as platypus in the Bombala River and the South Eastern and Kosciusko National Parks—attract many visitors annually. This extends from commercial fishing and whale watching in Eden to exploring all of the natural and cultural delights of the entire region. Unfortunately, the Bombala shire has approximately 25 kilometres of gravel road. This, alone, is stifling tourism activity. Hire cars are prevented from using the road, and tourists are discouraged. The promotion of the Snowy River Way is a priority for the local tourism body, Tourism Snowy Mountains and the Bombala Council. It should also be a priority for Tourism NSW. As a regional road it should attract the attention of the Roads and Transport Authority as a practical and sensible alternate route.
Due to many factors—including the small database of Bombala Council, and the social and economic costs of recent dramatic changes in the restructuring of the timber industry—despite the ongoing efforts to upgrade and seal sections of the road it is simply beyond the means of the council to do so in the next couple of years. Tourism and regional development is seen as the way of the future by the current Government. If this is the case the provision of sufficient funding over two or three years to complete the urgent upgrade will result in major local, regional and statewide benefit. The provision of between $1.25 million and $2 million would go a long way to completing this project and supporting the good works already undertaken by the Snowy River, Cooma Monaro and Bombala councils. I look forward to a commitment from the Government on this matter. [Time expired.]
SUTHERLAND HOSPITAL CARDIAC CATHETER LABORATORY
Mr McMANUS (Heathcote—Parliamentary Secretary) [11.26 a.m.]: I refer to health issues that have arisen not only in my electorate but throughout the Sutherland shire, in particular the desperate need for the installation of a cardiac catheter laboratory at Sutherland Hospital to ensure that those with cardiac problems have absolute primary care as soon as possible. I acknowledge the work of three cardiologists in the shire, Drs Rob Smith, James Healy and Mark Pitney, who regularly meet to discuss the installation of a cardiac catheter laboratory in the region. The reports I have seen thus far indicate that these doctors produce figures that clearly demonstrate the desperate need for such a facility in the region. It is acknowledged that both doctors and staff at Prince of Wales Hospital and St George Hospital do an excellent job with heart patients.
As Parliamentary Secretary for Health I have a fairly good understanding of these issues and have discussed them with the Minister regularly. I agree with the doctors that it is necessary to expand those services to mirror the Eastern Heart Clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital. Recently, the board of the South Eastern Area Health Service discussed the matter. As a result, it has been suggested that it is now timely to hold meetings with the doctors, the South Eastern Area Health Service and the Minister to progress the proposal. I thank the doctors who have indicated that, for the benefit of their patients and those who use the public system, such a facility is necessary. I also raise another matter which relates to Sutherland hospital. Last night my colleague the honourable member for Miranda referred to a pamphlet circulated by a member of Parliament in which that member claims a great deal of credit for initiatives in the area. The pamphlet, which has been issued on behalf of the honourable member for Cronulla, states: 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5913
Wins, wins and more wins. By working with the community Mr Kerr has delivered for the Cronulla electorate … $82.5 million for the redevelopment of Sutherland hospital.
I have been a member of this House for 16 years, and I know that the outstanding reason the honourable member for Cronulla is in trouble in his electorate is the complete inaction of Coalition governments regarding Sutherland hospital. The former Minister for Health, Ron Phillips, lost his seat for the same reason. The Government is undertaking an $82.5 million redevelopment after 56 years of inaction by the Coalition. When the Coalition was in government the maternity ward at Sutherland hospital had not changed from the time my children were born there 25 years earlier. The Coalition Government continually ignored the hospital because there was a large contingent of Liberal members in the region.
The Liberal member for Cronulla is a hypocrite. After that period of inaction, he has the audacity to claim that he is responsible for the $82.5 million redevelopment. Sutherland hospital was built by a Labor government, it was extended by a Labor government and it is now being redeveloped by a Labor government. It is important that the people of the shire continue to get the best services, as they do now. It is also important that the people who do the work are given credit. A clear and concise message should be sent to members of Parliament that if they do the work they should get the credit. They should not try to steal the credit for political gain.
EASTWOOD BRICKWORKS SITE REDEVELOPMENT
Mr TINK (Epping) [11.31 a.m.]: I raise a matter about the Epping to Chatswood rail link as it impacts on the plan to redevelop the Eastwood brickworks. A proposal is currently before Parramatta City Council to redevelop the site of the Eastwood brickworks and to construct approximately 280 residential dwellings there. The brickworks have been in operation for the better part of a century. Basically it has taken 100 years to dig a huge hole and it is now proposed that the hole be filled in. The time frame for that operation ranges from two years and six months to six years and one month. What has taken almost 100 years to dig will be filled in within about two years. It is proposed that the hole will be filled with spoil from the construction of the Epping to Chatswood rail link. I hasten to add that I fully and strongly support the building of the rail link.
I am concerned about the proposal to use the spoil from the rail link development to fill in the brickworks site in the short period of time I have referred to. In a report to the council dated 10 April Masson, Wilson and Twiney, traffic and transport consultants, said that the proposal would involve 300 trucking trips per day, or 38 trucking trips per hour, Monday to Saturday, over a period of two years and six months. That represents more than two trucking movements per minute, mainly using double bogey type trucks. If the fill operation is extended to six years and one month, Monday to Saturday, or six years and eight months, Monday to Friday, 120 trucking trips per day or 15 trips per hour will be required. That is still a significant number of trips, most of which will be on local roads in the Epping and Ryde areas. On page 29 of a document entitled "Parramatta Rail Link—Summary of the Final Proposal", dated August 2001, the following appears:
Total spoil generation from the Parramatta Rail Link is estimated at 2.45 million cubic metres.
The transport consultants for Parramatta City Council said that 960,000 cubic metres would go into the Eastwood brick pit. That is 40 per cent of the total spoil from the development of the rail link. I am greatly concerned about this matter. I again refer to page 29 of the same document where it is stated:
The primary routes for construction traffic will be major arterial roads such as the M2 and M4 motorways and the Pacific Highway. The use of non-arterial and residential streets will be minimised.
I place on record my grave concern that 40 per cent of the spoil will be carried on non-arterial roads and residential streets in Epping, Eastwood and Ryde. On Monday the Minister for Transport visited my electorate. We had a successful meeting about one aspect of the Epping to Chatswood rail link. I am pleased to acknowledge in Parliament the great work that has been done with the local school. However, I informed the Minister of my concerns about the issue to which I have referred. The application for redevelopment of the brickworks site by Clarendon Homes is currently before Parramatta City Council. The primary decision making lies with Parramatta council rather than with the Parramatta rail link organisation or the State Government. Whilst I made clear to the Minister my support for the project overall, I flagged with him my grave concerns about this matter.
I do not believe it has been spelt out that 40 per cent of all the spoil from the rail link development will end up in the brick pit and that local roads will be used. At the very least an environmental impact statement 5914 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
[EIS] should be undertaken in relation to the brick pit proposal and the traffic movements into and out of the area. As I understand it, this issue has not been raised in any official documents relating to the rail link. The honourable member for Ku-ring-gai, who also has a close interest in this matter, has confirmed that. This specific issue was not identified in an EIS undertaken on the rail link proposal and I cannot see any reference to it at page 29 of the summary document I have referred to. This matter requires and demands an EIS. I request that authorities undertake an EIS of this proposal.
DISABILITY SERVICES AUSTRALIA EMPLOYEE ACHIEVER AWARDS
Mr ASHTON (East Hills) [11.36 a.m.]: I am pleased to report that on 18 October I attended the Employee Achiever Awards 2002. The awards, organised by Disability Services Australia, were held at the Bankstown District Sports Club. The honourable member for Auburn and Councillor Allan Winterbottom, Deputy Mayor of Bankstown, were also in attendance. The Employee Achiever Awards, which were initiated in 2000, recognise the outstanding achievements of employees who have worked for Disability Services Australia for 10, 15 and 20 years in the Sydney area and wider regions.
The aim of the awards is to recognise the overall achievements of 800 employees of Disability Services Australia. Businesses in the organisations include Amaroo Industries, which operates in Condell Park in my electorate and in Castle Hill, Redfern Bowral and Picton; Amforce Labour Solutions, which is based at Qantas Flight Catering; and Pierlite. Disability Services Australia, which has provided services to people with disabilities and their families for more than 45 years, began in 1958 with seven employees. This non-profit organisation has a voluntary board of directors. We live in a world where managers of large corporations get $18 million payouts. I read this morning that one of the banks is expected to announce a $2 billion profit.
Ms Hodgkinson: The ANZ.
Mr ASHTON: I will accept the advice of the honourable member for Burrinjuck. These 800 employees have a range of disabilities including an inability to speak, an inability to hear and mental disabilities. I have been to these places several times and watched these people, who are both young and old, at work. The days of the sweatshops are gone: these are professionally run operations. At the Condell Park operation I was particularly pleased to learn that they are making products that are being exported to places such as Africa and China. That gives the younger people the opportunity to gain employment, earn a wage and live in their own homes with access to services and other activities outside that environment. It also gives them—especially the younger ones, some of whom I taught as a schoolteacher—access to proper employment that raises their self- esteem and makes them positive contributors to our society, both economically and personally.
Disability Services Australia is an innovative company that provides high-quality services. It provides vocational services—Amaroo Industries has five packaging factories providing a variety of employment—and support services. It has lifestyle and pre-vocational support for people working with disabilities. Lifestyle support is shared support provided for two to four people at any one location. The staff are available 24 hours a day to support each person and to help maintain a quality of life in their own homes which is similar to that enjoyed by others in the community. Community living, day options and day programs are available to help them.
The overall winner of the Employee Achiever Award was Michael London from the Redfern group. After the event 300 or 400 people have a big party, a celebration, a disco; it is a great function to attend. Indeed, I have attended the last three. I congratulate the Chief Executive of the organisation, Michael London; the President, Arthur Green; David Massey, Betty Sharlinger and others involved. Well done to all those involved in the Disability Services Australia Awards.
GOULBURN MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Ms HODGKINSON (Burrinjuck) [11.41 a.m.]: I raise with the House today the need for additional mental health services in Goulburn. There is a wide range of mental illnesses, including depression, paranoia and schizophrenia. Conditions such as clinical depression are common and affect around one in five of the population. Schizophrenia is less common, affecting about 1 per cent of the population. However, regardless of its extent in the community, mental illness has a significant debilitating effect on patients, their families and friends. I congratulate Rotary on the important work it is doing to increase awareness of mental illness.
I have significant concerns about the current state of mental health services, particularly in the Goulburn area. I have spoken to the parents of many patients, their partners, care providers, non-government 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5915 mental health workers and employees of the Southern Area Health Service mental health team. They all give me the same picture of not enough staff and insufficient resources to cope with their workload. I have the greatest respect and admiration for those professionals, who work on the front line of mental health services. However, the plain truth is that the Government is not properly supporting them.
Recently I spoke to Mr Richard Orchard, who lives in Goulburn. Mr Orchard is so upset about a situation with which he became involved that he asked me to use his name in Parliament. Earlier this year Mr Orchard was assaulted by a friend, who then attempted to commit suicide. His friend was involuntarily admitted to the Chisholm Ross Centre under section 24 of the Mental Health Act. Later that day Mr Orchard rang, inquiring as to his friend's condition and was told by a member of the community mental health team that his friend was so distressed that he would probably be kept in the Chisholm Ross Centre for several days. Other staff members had been unable to approach him because of his behaviour and he was being kept in a confined observation cell. On ringing the next morning Mr Orchard was told that his friend had undergone a 10-minute assessment by a psychiatrist and had subsequently been discharged from Chisholm Ross. Barely half an hour later his friend appeared at Mr Orchard's place and again assaulted him. The police were called and his friend was again arrested. In a letter to me Mr Orchard wrote:
Goulburn Police complained to me that they continually take people to the Chisholm Ross Centre, only to have them released and behaving violently in circumstances similar to what happened to me.
This continuing situation is borne out by statements by the magistrate at Goulburn Local Court, Mr Rob Rabbidge, and by the Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Toole. In December 2000 Mr Rabbidge expressed his concerns when exploring bail options for a mental health patient he subsequently sent to gaol. Mr Rabbidge said:
Thirty three per cent of people in prison in NSW suffer mental illness, but there is no real alternative to sending them to prison.
In January 2001 he expressed similar concerns when dealing with another case. Again in September this year, when dealing with a similar case, Mr Rabbidge said:
This is clearly a tragic situation.
Of the same case Sergeant Toole said:
We can't put her on the street and she has got nowhere else to go. I'm asking that Your Worship refuse bail. Gaol is not the right place, but it's the only place we've got.
What a damning indictment of the support provided to mental health patients by this Government— "Gaol is not the right place, but it's the only place we've got"! In response to some of these situations the editorial heading of the Goulburn Post of 22 January 2001 proclaimed, "Mental illness tests magistrates," and, on 23 September, "Mentally ill are forgotten." More than 12 per cent of the 112 positions for mental health caseworkers in the Southern Area Health Service are unfilled. The turnover of mental health caseworkers is also high. Last year 29 caseworkers resigned and in the past two years 52 have resigned. Those figures paint a grim picture. Two clergy from St Saviour's Cathedral work in mental health services in Goulburn. They both work almost full time but are funded for a total of only 12 hours a week. There are 23 caseworkers in Goulburn who support about 450 patients living in the Goulburn community. In a letter I received from a mental health worker this was described as a huge problem. The writer said:
Although a case manager is assigned to each person it is impossible for them to keep up with their enormous workload and therefore a good number of clients are being placed back into society with little or no support and as a result invariably end up back where they started.
The Minister cannot claim that he is unaware of this terrible situation. He must make sure that adequate resources are provided to support those who suffer from these disabling but largely ignored conditions. I find the rabble that is occurring on the Government benches at this time totally insulting. I am sure that members of the Opposition will agree that the Government treats this important situation with scant regard.
CENTRAL COAST MEDICAL SERVICES
Mr McBRIDE (The Entrance) [11.46 a.m.]: I wish to bring to the attention of the House three aspects of medical services that are a major concern to my constituents and all residents of the Central Coast. First I refer to the availability of specialist services and the discrimination between public and privately insured patients. The case of Diane Bergin was brought to my attention in a letter to me from her husband, Bill. In 5916 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 essence Diane has constant pain in her left shoulder. She has been seen by her local general practitioners and has had a number of treatments. It has now been decided that she needs specialist treatment. On ringing the specialist and asking for an appointment, the first thing she was asked was whether she had private medical cover. On the same note, she was told that the earliest date for a diagnosis consultancy was in February 2003. She discussed the matter with her husband. He then rang the same doctor's reception rooms seeking an appointment. In his letter her husband stated:
I was asked the same questions about private health cover and told them I was covered by Medicare Private. Lo and behold I was offered an appointment on 4th November 2002. I then revealed the circumstances of my deception and after being put on hold for several minutes a rude and forceful lady said there had been a mistake and the earliest was still February 2003.
He made the point that if he was a private patient he could get an appointment on 4 November but when he then pointed out his deception he was told that the earliest available was in 2003. That is clear discrimination. He then took the matter to the Australian Medical Association, which had no interest in it and referred him to the New South Wales Medical Board. Mr Bergin went on to state:
I was directed to a person … who was very understanding and sympathetic and would take up this with his supervisor Dr Alison Reid and would call me back. This he did several hours later with the news that Dr Reid said ethics were dead and carried no weight in the medical profession. He also reported that doctors were like plumbers and could pick and choose their customers.
This is totally unsatisfactory. I turn now to the second issue, the shortage of general practitioners. I refer to an article in a local newspaper that stated, "We are short 35 GPs on the Central Coast". In the past 10 years while the Central Coast's population has jumped almost 20 per cent the number of general practitioners has dropped 17 per cent, from 310 to 257. So 10 years later there are 53 fewer doctors. According to statistics provided by the Federal Government there should be one general practitioner for every 1,100 people. Wyong shire has one general practitioner for every 1,553 people. In the area north of Wyong hospital at Kanwal the figure jumps to one general practitioner for every 2,414 people.
Gosford has one general practitioner for every 1,091 people. A young British doctor applied to work on the Central Coast but the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care offered a provider number for only one year. Bear in mind that we have lost 53 doctors over the last 10 years and the population has increased by 20 per cent in that time. Yet the department is asking a doctor to move to the Central Coast with the guarantee of a provider number for only one year. The Central Coast Herald of 22 October 2002 stated:
The scourge of the bureaucrats is causing Central Coast people to be treated as second-class citizens.
The fat cats in Canberra now decree that we don't deserve the same medical services that the rest of the country receives...
They have chosen to implement their regulations over community need and over commonsense.
Why? Because they think Wyong is part of Sydney.
From the Federal point of view we are part of metropolitan Sydney. That leads to the third issue, bulk billing. In 1996-97, the first year of the Howard Government, 83.6 per cent of services in New South Wales were bulk billed. In 2001-02 the bulk billing figure for New South Wales is 79.8 per cent. However, on the Central Coast in the Gosford area this financial year the bulk billing figure is 68.9 per cent—10.9 per cent lower than the State figure. The figure for Wyong is similar. The average Central Coast figure is 10.8 per cent lower than the statewide figure. The shortage of doctors is making it difficult for people to gain access to a doctor and fewer services are being bulk billed. Already a number of practices on the Central Coast have been closed to new patients unless someone drops off the queue. There is a major issue in regard to general practitioners and other medical services. This is a Federal responsibility and it is about time the two Federal members did something about it. [Time expired.]
STATE BANK AND Mr PETER AND Mrs IVANKA RUKAVINA
Mr MAGUIRE (Wagga Wagga) [11.51 a.m.]: My constituents Peter and Ivanka Rukavina migrated to Australia in 1961 from Croatia. Peter is a skilled tradesman in timber and joinery. After years of hard work with Ivanka, Peter opened in 1977 Rukavina Timber and Joinery. In 1978 their son Ivan joined them in the business. By this time Peter had assets, owned the family home and was doing well. He was a customer of the Commonwealth Bank. In 1989 through his business connections he quoted for the construction of windows for a client who was the manager of the State Bank. A friendship developed and Peter was encouraged to transfer his business dealings to the State Bank. He did so. The bank replaced its manager in 1990 and Peter was persuaded to employ the wife of the new bank manager in his business and the new manager subsequently assisted in the maintenance of Peter's financial dealings, loans and record keeping. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5917
Loans of $58,000 and $85,000 were arranged for the Rukavinas to purchase investment properties, land for subdivision, et cetera. At this time the Rukavinas had secured major contracts with the Royal Australian Air Force base at Wagga Wagga valued at over $l million. Further bank accounts were opened. These were called shadowing accounts. Officers of the State Bank routinely transferred money from one account to another. The Rukavinas would regularly cash cheques believing they had banked funds to cover the drawings. However, the bank would transfer funds unannounced and towards the end the cheques would regularly bounce. The manager and his wife ceased involvement with the Rukavinas, removing with them the computer they had recently installed to assist with accounting, in 1990. It was then that the Rukavinas discovered the depth of their financial woes—$490,000 in debt, accounts not paid, et cetera, with suppliers demanding payment of $212,000. The bank took court action.
Peter Rukavina. took action against the State Bank and eventually mediation resulted in a partial settlement by the bank whilst not admitting fault. Payment was made to the Rukavinas of $35,000 cash and debts of $700,000 were wiped, leaving an investment still outstanding of $80,000 for a property loan. The bank agreed to investigate any claims of fraud, as Peter has always claimed happened within the bank. To keep trading Peter had to borrow from sources. These debts compounded this problem. In 1999 Peter approached me for help. It must be remembered the dealings happened almost 10 years ago; many records have now disappeared. Various members have attempted to help the Rukavinas.
Peter Rukavina has lost his business, his family and now faces the loss of his home because, he says, of the actions of the State Bank and its employee that set into motion the downward spiral. Peter maintains that the State Bank abrogated its responsibility by allowing an employee to manage the Rukavinas' books, arrange loans and create shadowing accounts, approve loans far beyond the Rukavinas capacity to pay, and use only one set of authorisation documents to open a myriad of accounts under the Rukavinas' name. Bank charges, fees and record interest rates compounded the problem. There is evidence that cheques were drawn that do not correspond with accounts, wages cheques do not match actual drawings of wages, unrealistic amounts of interest were charged, and cheques raised by contractors were never deposited to Rukavinas account—$170,000 in total. There are many more examples the Rukavinas point to.
The last correspondence I received from the State Bank, now the Commonwealth Bank, was from its solicitor, still not acknowledging fault and refusing to enter into further negotiations without the Rukavinas providing or proving these claims. As I said, many of the records have disappeared with the bank mergers. And who knows what records the bank has? It does not even know. Mr Rukavina speaks broken English and his writing skills are poor—in fact, I would say that he is illiterate—but his maths and his skills in timberwork are first class. He is regarded and respected as an excellent tradesman in his field. Peter's trusting good nature has been taken advantage of. Because of the length of time and compound interest, the Rukavinas' debts are approximately $560,000 to the liquidator, $200,000 for his house, $200,000 for machinery, $200,000 for blocks of land and $22,000 for associated costs—plus the personal grief of losing a good business and status in the community and assets then valued at $1,737,000.
What Peter requests is for the State Bank to participate in a roundtable conference to finally resolve this protracted and unfortunate case. Peter wants to be able to clear his good name and return to work in the industry he enjoys. The bank is in a position to make that happen. There is much more to this problem that I could relate if time permitted. Mr Rukavina has tried every avenue to honour his debts but clearly the odds have always been against him. He is a proud and decent man. I appeal to the Commonwealth Bank to renegotiate directly with Mr Rukavina and finalise the issue.
LAKE MACQUARIE CLEAN-UP PROGRAM
Mr ORKOPOULOS (Swansea) [11.56 a.m.]: Honourable members would be aware that Lake Macquarie is the largest saltwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere. The area around the lake is home to some 200,000 people. About 180,000 live in the Lake Macquarie local government area and the balance in the Wyong shire. Several years ago the Premier's task force set down a blueprint for management of lake issues. The largest environmental problem is the 80,000 tonnes of sediment choking various bays and parts of the lake after 200 years of white settlement. Over many years various parts of the lake have been dredged. They have been man- made disasters in the making. The two areas I want to touch on briefly today are Black Neds Bay and Swansea flats. Black Neds Bay is on the eastern side of Swansea Bridge and is the only enclosed area that has direct access to the ocean. The area is not restricted by opening times of Swansea Bridge. Only the outer edge is navigable for shallow-draught vessels in a marked channel.
The problem with Black Neds Bay is that there are approximately 80 legal moorings in the bay. One commercial small business operator, Mr Brad Minors from B and L Fishing and Cruises Pty Ltd, is unable to 5918 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 negotiate his way in or out of the bay because of its massive siltation. This morning I met with Mr Minors and a lobby group, the Recreation, Residents and Ratepayers Group, known as the 3Rs, along with representatives of the Minister for Land and Water Conservation and the Minister for Transport, representing the Waterways Authority. In Black Neds Bay and Swansea Flats residents pay $250 a year for private moorings and $350 a year for commercial moorings. However, the siltation is clearly preventing them from accessing the bay. They are calling for action by relevant authorities to do something about that problem.
The 3Rs Group, supported by the Boatowners Association of New South Wales, has constantly lobbied me and the Government for some concerted action at Black Neds Bay and Swansea Flats and in the Swansea channel. The Premier's task force has made a commitment through the lake and catchment co-ordinator to allocate $0.5 million to undertake dredging of the Swansea channel in the next 12 months. The design for that dredging is to take into account the long-term needs and the requirement for several millions of dollars worth of dredging for the channel. Black Neds Bay and Swansea Flats need a more concerted campaign. A maintenance dredging proposal is required. The residents and those holding moorings have requested, and very much need, a proper maintenance dredging program for the channel, one that takes the environmental and recreational needs into consideration.
KU-RING-GAI ELECTORATE SWASTIKA SIGNAGE
Mr O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai) [12.01 p.m.]: At a time of turmoil and terrorism in the world it is always of concern to see ignorance and prejudice within one's own community. I take this opportunity to mention some curious goings-on within my electorate that are causing concern to specific communities: that is, the appearance of red swastikas upon telegraph poles at more than 25 locations across my electorate. The red swastikas were first noticed in late September and, in some cases, they were accompanied by a white cross. Some signs have been removed by residents, who were surprised that the signs were rapidly replaced. More signs have been placed on poles since that early outbreak. A person was seen erecting a set of signs on a telegraph pole in Wahroonga. He was driving a car with a Victorian registration plate. He used a folding extension ladder to affix the signs at a much higher level than previously, obviously to make it harder for people who objected to them to take them down.
That information was given to police, but the signs are still there and more are appearing. The people who brought this matter to my attention have seen similar signs on the Old Pacific Highway at Mount Colah, at Mount Ku-ring-gai, near the cemetery on Mona Vale Road, Mona Vale, and at Thornleigh, Dural, Cherrybrook and Toongabbie. The purpose of those affixing the signs is unclear; what is clear is that the signs are often located near schools, parks or heavily used intersections. Clearly their positioning is designed for them to be noticed. My local community of Ku-ring-gai is offended by the signs. As someone who is a member of Synod, I know that many Christians would find the fixing of a crucifix next to a red swastika to be highly offensive. Within my electorate there are members of the Jewish community, who find the images and the memories that swastikas bring back to them highly disturbing.
I say, again, that all this is happening at a time when terrorism, fanaticism and extremism are being brought home to us on our televisions each night. I urge Ku-ring-gai police, based at Hornsby, to be more proactive, and I urge Ku-ring-gai Council to make a co-ordinated effort to remove the signs. EnergyAustralia was contacted to help and I understand that its response was that those signs are being erected all over Sydney. I have no personal knowledge of that, but that is what one of my constituents has been told by a representative of EnergyAustralia. I do not know what is behind those signs; we fear what we do not know. The symbolisms involved are highly inappropriate and offensive. I hope that they can be removed.
On behalf of members of the Jewish community in my electorate, whom I represent in this place, I pay tribute to Effie Ben-Matityahu, the departing Israeli Consul General in Sydney. During his time in this city he sought to stand up for the State of Israel, to stand up for interests in the Middle East, and sought to shed some light on those affairs that are often glibly or too easily dealt with by images on television screens. This year two of my friends have decided to return to Israel. They are Ahron Moor, who worked here for the Jewish National Fund, and now Effie Ben-Matityahu. They have been great supporters of and advocates for the State of Israel. One went back willingly, because he could not bear to be away while acts of terrorism were committed within his country.
As Ahron said to me outside this Chamber, he felt disloyal in not being with his countrymen while those acts were being perpetrated upon them. Effie Ben-Matityahu has been the victim of what happens in governments all around the world—cost-cutting, in this case by the Israeli Government because of the effect upon its economy of daily acts of terrorism in which people strap explosives to themselves and kill innocent people. I stand in this place opposed to prejudice, ignorance, extremism and fanaticism. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5919
LIVERPOOL ELECTORATE INDIAN COMMUNITY
Mr LYNCH (Liverpool) [12.06 p.m.]: I draw to the attention of the House the activities and achievements of the Indian community in Sydney generally, but particularly within Liverpool. In recent years the Indian community has grown significantly in the Liverpool area and is now a noticeable, significant and very welcome addition to the City of Liverpool. Recently I had the opportunity of attending a number of functions involving the Indian community, including the India-Australia Fair that was organised by the United Indian Associations Inc. [UIA] and held at the Fairfield Showground on Sunday 18 August. That was the fifth UIA fair that I have attended. The fair is a very significant annual event which many thousands of people attend.
The UIA was launched in 1994, and that is when the first fair was held. The UIA is a peak body, representing a range of Indian community-based organisations throughout Sydney. Also present at the fair was the Chairperson of the UIA, Navin Khandar, and Mr Ganapathi, the Consul General of the Republic of India, who attended this Chamber yesterday. Of course, many other members of the UIA executive whom I had met on previous occasions were there. The fair had two really significant aspects. The first was that the fair itself was a celebration of Australian, especially Sydney's, multiculturalism. We have an extraordinary cultural diversity in this city, particularly in Liverpool. Second, the fair was a celebration of the extraordinary diversity within India, and the Indian community. India was practising multiculturalism well before Australian politicians started talking about it. The fair displayed the vast variety of food, dress and cultural performances.
The fair was also a celebration of Indian independence: Indian Independence Day is 15 August. The struggle for, and achievement of, Indian independence is one of the great dramas and stories of twentieth century history. It commenced with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar in 1919 and extended through many campaigns last century. It spawned some of the great figures of twentieth century history, including, most obviously, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and the list goes on. That struggle resulted in the largest functioning democracy in the world.
Several days later, on 21 August, another function was held at Government House. It was hosted by the Premier and attended by the Ambassador, the High Commissioner and the Consul General. The function was held essentially to announce some initiatives to develop trade between New South Wales and India. This trade is currently worth only $700 million and there is extraordinary potential for its expansion to the benefit of both New South Wales and India. On this occasion it was announced that a trade mission from New South Wales would visit India in December.
On 8 September I was invited to attend another function, this time organised by the UIA and the India Sports Club Inc. It was an outdoor cricket tournament. Whatever animus the Indian community might have had towards England because of its colonial activities, it does not extend to the game of cricket, which Indians enjoy with great enthusiasm. On 14 and 15 September Ganeshotsava, a Hindu religious festival, was celebrated. The festival, which is organised annually by the organisation Friends of India Liverpool, seeks the blessings of Lord Ganesh. I attended the function on the evening of 14 September with Councillor Cecilia Anthony from Liverpool City Council and enjoyed the cultural program. This is a large event that attracts about 2,000 people each year, and I think it is the fourth such event that I have attended. Friends of India Liverpool does much good work. It is involved in Clean Up Australia, blood donation and tree plantings.
On Sunday 22 September I attended the Federation of Australian Indian Associations [FAIA] spring festival Basant Mela. Several other political figures attended, including Parramatta councillors Julia Finn, David Borger and Maureen Walsh. Federal member of Parliament Laurie Ferguson was also present together with Vanlalhuma from the Indian consulate. The FAIA was incorporated only last year and is thus one of the newer organisations. It is a non-profit, non-secular, non-sectarian organisation that arranged this festival to showcase the Indian community in Australia with displays of various folk dances, heritage and classical music together with wonderful Indian cooking. I should also note the prevalence of very good Indian restaurants in Liverpool.
KU-RING-GAI ELECTORATE BUILDING DEVELOPMENTS
Mr HUMPHERSON (Davidson) [12.11 p.m.]: I wish to raise my concerns about overdevelopment in Ku-ring-gai and, if time permits, in Warringah. On Tuesday this week it was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald—the story has not been disputed by the Minister for Planning or the Government—that the Government intends to rezone six parcels of land in Ku-ring-gai to allow the construction of seven-storey developments on those sites. This has been an ongoing issue for several years for the present and preceding councils and it remains unresolved. During this period councils have sought, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to try to 5920 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 address what they believed to be the Government's expectations in terms of providing diverse housing within the municipality. To that end, the council invested substantial resources in studies to identify the areas most appropriate for rezoning for medium-density housing. The Government has never given the council a clear target and has sought at all times to move the goalposts, making it extremely difficult to resolve the issue.
If the Government's latest plan to spot rezone six sites for seven-storey developments proceeds it will change irreversibly the nature of Ku-ring-gai and that part of Sydney. For those who are not familiar with the area, it is predominantly a treed, well-vegetated area of Sydney. By and large, no buildings exceed three or four storeys—in other words, a tree canopy unbroken by artificial structures such as buildings extends over much of the area. I believe strongly that it is important to preserve the tree canopy in Ku-ring-gai. It is more than possible to increase the number of medium-density dwellings of up to four storeys in appropriate locations.
I believe high-rise housing will not necessarily meet the needs of local residents. In fact, there is no strong demand for such development in Ku-ring-gai. High-rise housing is available in the nearby areas of Hornsby, Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney, and I believe development of that character would be an undesirable addition to the Ku-ring-gai environment. I think most people who want to live in medium-density housing in Ku-ring-gai would prefer villas, townhouses and other low-level, medium-density dwellings in areas close to transport, transport nodes and shops.
This plan is the latest in a long line of overdevelopment that has been forced on communities around Sydney. It simply must stop. As the local member of Parliament and as shadow Minister for Planning, I signal the Opposition's intention to oppose this proposal strongly. I warn the Government not to proceed with this development at the eleventh hour before the State election. If there is to be proper consultation it will be unable to finalise the matter before 22 March next year, and the Government ought not to finalise it before the election when it is in caretaker mode. If such a decision is taken it will be subject to review by the new State Liberal Government. If the proposal does not proceed the new Government will scrap the idea.
The Opposition and I acknowledge the need to provide a diversity of housing—the need for such housing certainly exists in Ku-ring-gai. However, that need can be addressed by providing housing within the parameters agreed and accepted by the council—that is, a range of different style dwellings of up to four storeys situated predominantly in the proximity of the North Shore rail line and stations at Roseville, Lindfield, Gordon and further up that line. Development such as that proposed irreversibly changes the style and character of an area, and the Opposition is committed to opposing it. Poor planning has characterised much State environmental planning policy No. 5 development in the area. Our local roads, infrastructure and transport system have been overloaded and the Government has failed to address that problem through its planning process.
KOGARAH MUNICIPAL COUNCIL ROOFTOP DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL
Miss BURTON (Kogarah) [12.16 p.m.]: I must inform the House today of a very important local community victory. A few weeks ago, for no reason that anyone could fathom, Kogarah Municipal Council supported an increase to Kogarah development control plan No. 5 to allow rooftop development. This means that all existing dwellings and new development applications could be allowed to add another storey, increasing some to a staggering nine floors. We all thought the council would have learned its lesson from the community outrage at its approval of the pink towers at Empress Gardens. However, it appears not to have done so.
Following the council's decision I was contacted immediately by some concerned residents to whom I gave a commitment that we would fight this ridiculous decision together. Fortunately, some fair-minded councillors—Labor and independent—moved a rescission motion to be heard on 14 October. We immediately organised the distribution of petitions throughout Kogarah asking for signatures and requested letters from residents expressing their objections to this ludicrous decision. We also urged the local community to attend the rescission meeting. We were inundated with petitions and letters, and 300 people packed the gallery on the evening of 14 October to voice their objections.
On the night it was very interesting to note that many of the Liberal councillors who had originally supported the motion were not in attendance and the ones who were present, after no debate and an excellent speech from Labor councillor Michael Platt, who put sound arguments against this disastrous proposal and stated it was nothing more than a greedy developer land grab supported by some councillors, unanimously supported the recision motion. Although reasons were not given for the change of view, I am pleased that the right decision has been made and that council has listened to the concerns of the community.
However, the residents remain confused about why councillors changed their minds and voted unanimously to withdraw the proposal after regarding it as important two weeks previously. I think it was all 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5921 about greedy developers wanting to get a few extra million dollars from the Kogarah central business district [CBD]. This has been a terrific example of community power and communities having a say and fighting unacceptable development. The community is pleased that the council has backed down. I take this opportunity to thank Labor Councillor Michael Platt and independent councillors Anne Field and Susan Gainsford for their support and for putting forward the recision motion. I thank Councillor Col Ritchie and Councillor Graham Staas for supporting the recision motion. Also, I thank Susan O'Connor and Catherine Stanmore from Kogarah, who distributed petitions to members of the public in the shopping malls and around Kogarah, informing the general public of the decision.
I say to Kogarah council that it should take heed. This sort of skulduggery will not be tolerated in the area and if it ever happens again and council decides for no reason to force overdevelopment on the community, it should think again. We will work day and night to achieve the same victory that has been achieved on this occasion. Finally, I thank the people of the Kogarah CBD. If we did not have their support in turning up on the night to present arguments and put pressure on councillors I doubt that the council would have changed its mind. We must stick together and keep up the fight.
COMMUNITY AID PANELS
Mr HARTCHER (Gosford—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [12.21 p.m.]: Community aid panels were established on the Central Coast in 1987 and generally comprise a police officer, a couple of community representatives, a solicitor, the offender and, on occasion, the victim or the victim's family. Senior Constable Paul Dixon and the Magistrate of Wyong Local Court, Errol Considine, were largely responsible for their establishment. Community aid panels spread across New South Wales to a number of areas, including Sutherland, Glebe, Liverpool, Woolloomooloo, Newcastle, Nowra, Maitland, Lismore, Cobar, Bourke and Brewarrina.
The system was locally co-ordinated and was extremely successful. Recently the former Chief Magistrate, Patricia Staunton, effectively axed community aid panels and my plea is that these be reinstated. The panels comprise representatives of the community coming together to assist in the administration of justice. In July 2002 Ms Staunton, the then Chief Magistrate, stated that the panels were no longer necessary because of new initiatives under the Young Offenders Act. The panels work on the basis that young offenders who enter a guilty plea for offences are referred to a panel. The hearing for the offence is then adjourned by the court for a three-month period while the young offender participates in the panel. Participation in the program is purely voluntary.
The objective of the panel is to provide an informal environment in which young offenders can discuss their offence and are encouraged to participate in community activities. At the end of the three-month period the role and undertakings of the young offenders are explained to the court so that the court can determine the appropriate penalty. When it is clear that a young offender has learned a lesson and may not reoffend, frequently the charges are dismissed or a light penalty is imposed. Community aid panels were effective. A paper prepared in 1989 by Senior Constable Paul Dixon from Wyong, one of the founders of the program, stated that following an analysis it was found that only 5 per cent of approximately 200 offenders who had come before panels reoffended. His work is set out in a document he prepared entitled "Community Aid Panel" in which he stated:
The community aid panel is not a soft option and used effectively it will increase the offender's appreciation of the other three Rs—responsibility, respect and remorse.
The State Field Officer for the Boys Brigade of Australia, Mr Ian Morton, stated:
It is certainly about time that someone in the law enforcement and legal profession came up with a system of helping people to rehabilitate rather than seeing them merely as offenders.
These programs worked well and ensured that communities were involved in the administration of justice for minor offences. They have assisted many young people to overcome the temptations of crime and to become worthwhile citizens in the community. NSW Police is supportive of community aid panel. Indeed, participants in community aid panels were covered by insurance under the New South Wales police service policy. Therefore, I urge the Government and the new Chief Magistrate to take on board the success of the panels and to meet with a delegation of persons who participated in the panel—a delegation I would be happy to take—so that the Chief Magistrate may reconsider authorising magistrates throughout New South Wales to allow the panels to operate within their courts. The panels are a worthwhile, successful initiative. They come at a low cost and they have the enthusiastic support of the police. I have spoken to police at Wyong and at Sutherland, who are 5922 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 enthusiastic about the work of the panels and believe that their continued success is in the community's interest. Finally, I pay tribute to Paul Dixon and Errol Considine, the founders of the system, for the work they have done in legal education in New South Wales.
NORTH HEAD QUARANTINE STATION
Mr BARR (Manly) [12.26 p.m.]: The commission of inquiry into the North Head Quarantine Station handed down its report a few months ago and its recommendations are being digested within PlanningNSW. Since then the co-proponents of the lease proposal, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Mawlands, have responded to the commission of inquiry report in a very thick document entitled "A Preferred Activity Statement". I am not sure that this document has yet been presented to any government departments but it is a disturbing document. It is a detailed response to the commission of inquiry's recommendations and basically amounts to an attempt to negate many of the key recommendations. For example, the commission of inquiry recommended a lease tenure of 21 years. The co-proponents sought 45 years, comprising 21 years, plus 15 years, plus nine. The document opposes the evening curfew on the ferry service for the specious reason that it would "transfer little penguin risk to bandicoot road kill risk". Since when is it the role of the National Parks and Wildlife Service to be involved in some sort of trade-off in risk potential to endangered animal colonies?
The role of the National Parks and Wildlife Service is to ensure in absolute terms the protection and welfare of both the penguins and the bandicoots. Clearly, they are losing sight of the main game, which is unacceptable. The document disagrees with the recommendation to hold outdoor events or functions after dark away from areas identified as potential bandicoot foraging habitat on the grounds that habitat maps are unvalidated by bandicoot experts. Whatever happened to the precautionary principle? Dr Peter Banks from the University of New South Wales, who undertook the recent bandicoot population census for National Parks, stated that even a small loss of habitat could push the population that he estimates at only 100 to extinction. The question is: What on earth is National Parks contemplating?
The document disagrees with the limitation of night tour patrons to 100 in favour of a 450 maximum at the site day or night. Once again: What about the bandicoots? The preferred activity statement lists many other points of disagreement with the commission of inquiry recommendations. The inquiry recommended that a reference group be established with representatives from government departments, Manly Council, the metropolitan local Aboriginal land council and community groups with an interest in the site. The co-proponents reject this recommendation in preference for the advisory committee procedure in the National Parks and Wildlife Act, which leaves the composition of the committee to the discretion of the Minister.
The rejection of the reference group suggests that it is the intention of the co-proponents to exclude representatives suggested by the commission of inquiry report. It is unacceptable to exclude these groups from an advisory role as it would mean that the quarantine station development would not be subject to the level of ongoing monitoring the sensitive site deserves. Similarly, the co-proponents rejected the recommendation that special events be limited to four a year. They claim there should be no restrictions when the special events do not involve the use of the overflow parking. Once again, that is a severe impact on the quarantine station site. The Government has an opportunity to show it has a vision for North Head beyond bean counting. There is a magnificent opportunity to create a sanctuary at the entry point to a magnificent harbour. To do so would require an integrated planning approach to North Head, including the quarantine station. It would also entail the ditching of the quarantine station proposal. I call on the Government to do this.
POLICE AND COMMUNITY YOUTH CLUBS RESTRUCTURE
Mr MARTIN (Bathurst) [12.31 p.m.]: As honourable members would be aware, the Minister for Police, the Hon. Michael Costa, recently restructured the police and community youth club [PCYC] organisation to decentralise it and make it more community based. The Government provided a $8 million package, $5 million of which was to boost capital upgrades and a trial of civilian support to free police from police work. I have two police and community youth clubs in my electorate, one in Lithgow and one in Bathurst. When I was a child I used the facilities of the club at Lithgow and later I was a member of its management board. Senior Constable Jeff Doherty was recently named Policeman of the Year for his work with the Bathurst Police and Community Youth Club. An article in the Western Advocate states:
Bathurst Police officer Jeff Doherty has been named "Policeman of the Year".
Senior Constable Doherty received the prestigious award from Police Commissioner Ken Moroney. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5923
Senior Constable Doherty is the son of the late Ted Doherty, who was one of the police officers in charge of the police boys club in Lithgow when I was a child. He went on to be a very senior police officer, reaching the rank of inspector. Unfortunately, he died last year just after he retired. Jeff is carrying on the great Doherty tradition. The article continues:
Senior Constable Doherty has been working at Bathurst PCYC, working to help disadvantaged young people and change their attitudes towards the police service.
He joined the police force in what he likes to call "a family business", his father and brother both being in the service.
In a little over 18 months, Senior Constable Doherty has made the PCYC Breakfast and Domestic Violence Programs into "a labour of love".
Senior Constable Doherty has always been interested in kids and youth-related issues. It is great that he has been able to make the program a success. He has three young boys. He is not only passionate about his job, but he is extremely modest about his achievements. He was a bit embarrassed about winning this prestigious award. But those around him in the community know that it has been well earned. The article continues:
Senior Constable Doherty's involvement in the PCYC is a valuable service to the police force, the kids involved and the greater community.
The PCYC's breakfast program is for kids who either don't attend or have trouble getting to school, while the domestic violence program targets children who either have experienced some kind of domestic abuse at home, or have been the direct victims of domestic attacks.
The breakfast program gives kids who may not receive breakfast normally a good meal to start the day and at least three days of school a week.
The domestic violence program offers counselling and support services as well as a place where the kids can have fun and forget about the trauma in their lives.
"The programs also give the kids the chance to actually interact with police officers when they aren't in trouble," Senior Constable Doherty said.
"Changing attitudes is very important."
However, at the same time, Senior Constable Doherty believes that the PCYC is not as visible as it could be and that this could be limiting its effectiveness.
Senior Constable Doherty is marketing the services of the Bathurst PCYC to the wider community. He believes, and I do not disagree with him, that it should be the top youth service in a country town. He has plans to open a youth drop-in centre next year where local kids can hang out in a safe and drug-free environment. This is critically important to keep kids away from an element that might lead them into trouble. It is this interaction by committed police officers such as Senior Constable Doherty through police and community youth clubs that are having an important impact on young lives in Bathurst. It underpins what a great and valuable assets PCYCs are to our communities and how they are benefiting from the restructure by the Minister. I am sure all members in this House join in congratulating Senior Constable Doherty on his prestigious award.
CRONULLA ELECTORATE SERVICES
Mr KERR (Cronulla) [12.36 p.m.]: I wish to reply to comments made about my electorate. Last night the honourable member for Miranda referred to the Sylvania Waters athletics track. In 1999 I inspected the track and made representations about it. The honourable member for Miranda attacked me for detailing community achievements in my newsletter. In doing so, he has attacked the Cronulla community, who lobbied by letter, phone calls and petitions for their dreams to become a reality. Ordinary people made a fuss and got behind it. I do not want the athletics association, with which I have had a long association, dragged into a political bunfight. The honourable member also referred to the duplication of the railway and asked from whom I had a commitment. If he were to take his own advice and read the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader he would know that the shadow Minister for Transport raised that matter in February. However, on 8 November—some eight months later—this appeared:
The Transport Minister, Carl Scully, said this week that neither the proposed Hurstville-Strathfield link nor the full duplication of the Cronulla line were being considered in the short term. They are in the medium-long term bracket, which would be eight to 15 years.
The Opposition has made a commitment to duplicate the line. The Government is simply conducting a feasibility study. It does not end there. On 8 November 2001 the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader spoke 5924 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 about railway projects 15 years in the future. On 1 November 2001 it stated, "Kerr calls for double track all the way." The honourable member for Miranda raised a very important matter about the Rocla sandmining proposal. His planning Minister took the powers away from Sutherland Shire Council in relation to that project. Sutherland shire Labor has never said that the Government's action was wrong. The Minister took environmental decisions away from citizens who live in the environment.
The honourable member for Miranda made a serious allegation that I had attended a $1,000 per head fundraising dinner at Miranda, where the Holt sandmining company bought two tables. Mr Schreiber has told me that is totally untrue and he has evidence to that effect. The dinner did not cost $1,000 per head and the Holt company did not buy two tables. I will let Mr Schreiber speak for himself. The honourable member for Heathcote spoke about Sutherland Hospital. I do not want to give the honourable member a hard time—I will leave that to Sussex Street. He has been the subject of a lot of unfair criticism. The honourable member did not go from the Left to the Right out of any philosophical basis.
Mr Martin: How would you know?
Mr KERR: I will tell you how I know. He went in search of adult company. That was the only reason, although it may have been a futile search. I remind the honourable member for Heathcote that I have raised a number of matters about Sutherland Hospital. I have raised issues about the cardiac services and the kiosk. Where does Sutherland shire Labor stand on the retention of the kiosk, which is run by volunteers? I hope the Parliamentary Secretary will answer that question.
Mr McManus: I am not with Sutherland shire Labor.
Mr KERR: You are with Sutherland shire Labor—of course you are! The honourable member for Heathcote attacked Ron Phillips, a former member for Miranda. The honourable member may be surprised to learn that so highly regarded is the former member for Miranda that he has been given work by the present Minister for Health. The hospital upgrade would have proceeded had the Coalition been elected in 1995.
Mr Collier: He wanted to privatise it.
Mr KERR: The honourable member for Miranda should tell us the Government's plans for private facilities on the grounds of Sutherland Hospital.
Mr McMANUS (Heathcote—Parliamentary Secretary) [12.41 p.m.]: I cannot allow this moment to pass without making some comment. My views are clear with respect to health issues in Sutherland shire. It does not matter how the Liberal Party in the shire feels about Ron Phillips, a former member for Miranda and a former Minister for Health. The fact is he lost his seat because when he was Minister for Health he left the hospital in his electorate in degradation. He lost his seat because the community—not the Liberal Party, the group who loved him and to whom he believed he owed something—threw him out on his ear.
The honourable member for Cronulla will be thrown out on his ear because he allowed an Independent to do the job that he should have been doing for the past eight years. Sutherland Hospital needed looking after, and we are doing the job. A Labor Government built the hospital 56 years ago and the Carr Labor Government renovated it. When I became Parliamentary Secretary for Health I visited the hospital. Four years ago the maternity ward had not been renovated since my children were born there 30 years ago. Whose fault is that? A group of people in the Liberal Party were running the shire and doing absolutely nothing.
Dr Kernohan: How long had you been in government when you became Parliamentary Secretary for Health? It was a disgrace.
Mr McMANUS: The honourable member for Cronulla is a disgrace. He deserves to lose his seat, and he will.
PORT STEPHENS RAAF WILLIAMTOWN SUPPORT GROUP CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD
Mr BARTLETT (Port Stephens) [12.43 p.m.]: I would like to share some good news from the seat of Port Stephens. Recently a dinner was held by the Port Stephens RAAF Williamtown Support Group to present a member of the RAAF base with its Citizen of the Year Award 2002. There were a number of sponsors for the award, including BAE systems, Fighter Force and Airlift Group, Kloster Ford and Cardiff Signs. Approximately 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5925
60 people attended the presentation dinner. This award recognises the valuable contribution made by approximately 2,500 RAAF personnel, reservists and their families to the local community of Port Stephens. In the past the committee has been closely associated with the cycle path development between Raymond Terrace and Medowie. That project, which is nearly complete, covers a distance of 11 kilometres. During the past 12 months the support group has been given the opportunity to sponsor the Defence Special Needs Support Group web site and to contribute to the Williamtown preschool and DCO spouses group.
Our major goal next year is to facilitate the establishment of an outreach autism school at Grahamstown public school. There has been a significant increase in the diagnosis of autism and associated problems in the Port Stephens community, both at the RAAF base and in the civilian community. Last year we were able to present the winner of the RAAF Williamtown Citizen of the Year Award with a trip to Gallipoli for Anzac Day. That is where our sponsors come in very handy. Last year's winner and partner went to Gallipoli on Anzac Day, 25 April, and they gave us a wonderful report back. We are endeavouring to keep the Anzac tradition alive and to contribute to the increased military awareness of the past efforts of our soldiers, given that our Gallipoli veterans have now passed on. This year the Port Stephens RAAF Williamtown Support Group presented the winner with a trip for two to the sixtieth anniversary commemoration ceremony of the Burma railway at Hellfire Pass, again on 25 April. The support group, of which I am the chairman, comprises Lue Fagan, John and Carolyn Donahoo, John Longrigg, Barry Sandwell and Phil Darvall. I thank the members for their efforts in arranging this event.
The finalists for this year's award were Al Locking, who has served 11 years with the Raymond Terrace Junior Rugby League Club and holds the position of president; Derek Frizzo, who has been associated with the Telecross arm of the Newcastle branch of the Red Cross since June 1994 and is involved in telephone counselling; Kim Ewing, who has done a wonderful job as an active volunteer in the Port Stephens State Emergency Services during the disaster in the electorate last year; Andrew Norton, who is a volunteer with the Medowie Rural Fire Brigade; Robert Kebby, who over the past six years has been finance officer of the Port Hunter softball team, scorer for two teams and assistant manager, and assists the new president and committee; Kevin Vins, who is a keen trombone player and a volunteer in the Port Stephens community band, which plays throughout the electorate; and Cheryl Jones, who has been the volunteer co-ordinator of the Williamtown Defence Special Needs Support Group since 1997.
The winner of this year's award was Squadron Leader David Coysh. David is president of the RAAF Williamtown Multisports Endurance Club. He has been involved in the scouting movement for 39 years, 32 as a leader. He is currently the cub scout leader with First Nelson Bay. David is also registrar for the Tomaree Triathlon Club and is involved with the Maitland Triathlon Club, the New South Wales Rogaining Association, the Port Stephens Sailing and Aquatic Club, and the Port Stephens Sister Cities Committee. The Port Stephens community would not operate to the extent that it does without the input from the personnel from the RAAF Base Williamtown. I congratulate all of the RAAF Base Williamtown personnel who are involved in helping the Port Stephens community.
Mr FACE (Charlestown—Minister for Gaming and Racing, and Minister Assisting the Premier on Hunter Development) [12.48 p.m.]: I also congratulate the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Williamtown for its constant input into the Hunter community. As the honourable member for Port Stephens said, we would be poorer if it were not for the RAAF Base at Williamtown. In economic terms it is the biggest provider of employment, and in monetary terms it is the biggest pay packet in the region. A lot of people do not understand that. Recently I had the privilege of representing the Premier at the No. 26 (City of Newcastle) Squadron Reservist Unit, which once again received the Air Force Association trophy for the best reservist unit in the Air Force. I was accompanied by Squadron Leader Linda New.
That reservist unit has input in the community and the Air Force, and many of the skills people learn on the airbase are used in their everyday work life. The reservists have a diverse background—professionals, people who work in industry, trades people and the honourable member for Port Stephens. The permanent personnel on the RAAF base involve themselves in all the community activities that were described by the honourable member for Port Stephens. The skills they have acquired in the Air Force play an immeasurable part in daily life in the scattered community of Port Stephens, in and around what we call the bay. I congratulate the Royal Australian Air Force for the many activities and sporting associations it is involved in. I also congratulate the No. 26 (City of Newcastle) Squadron on winning its first trophy.
WARRAGAMBA POLICING
Dr KERNOHAN (Camden) [12.50 p.m.]: On 26 June I told honourable members about the Safety Awareness Day at Warragamba Public School. The associated citizens morning tea organised by Pam Ezzy 5926 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 highlighted a major problem at Warragamba: the lack of a permanent police presence. As the area was served by the St Marys Local Area Command [LAC], a response time of 20 minutes was involved. The same organisations sent representatives to another Pam Ezzy community tea at the school, held at 10.00 a.m. on Monday 14 October. However, this time it was a celebration. We were there to welcome Warragamba's new policeman, Senior Constable David Sommerville, on his first day of duty. He was introduced to us by Superintendent Alan Harding, the Commander of St Marys LAC.
Having been told of David Sommerville's country background, and later speaking with him, I am sure that he is an excellent choice for the job. Among the guests was Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Walsh. He delivered the commissioner's apologies and the commissioner's wish to attend the celebrations, having personally authorised the employment of an officer to live in the police residence at Warragamba and to work as an old-fashioned town policeman whose duties are organised according to the needs of the town. I congratulate Commissioner Ken Moroney for having a commonsense approach to a pressing problem and for using a method that has proved successful over the years yet is not used much in modern policing. I express my thanks and those of the community to Superintendent Alan Harding for his active support of this solution to Warragamba's problem.
It is a shame the Ambulance Service could not take a similar commonsense approach and give Warragamba a second ambulance officer. Warragamba experiences problems because of its distance from hospitals. How can one officer tend a badly injured patient and drive the ambulance at the same time? Alternatively, with five ambulance officers living in the general area, one could always be on call during an emergency. I understand that cost is the reason they are not often called out when needed. Following the morning tea there was a general assembly of Warragamba Primary School. The school was decorated with a large student-made sign welcoming Senior Constable Sommerville. Principal Ray Farnham introduced Senior Constable Sommerville to the students, who welcomed him enthusiastically. Pam Ezzy was presented with a book signed by many people expressing their appreciation for her great work in heading the community effort to get a policeman for Warragamba.
After the assembly and the celebration I was shown a problem in the playground. A large bare area that allows dust to blow everywhere is not unusual during a drought, but it certainly is in a school with plenty of water available and with many watering points to distribute it over the playground. Apparently the foundations of demolished buildings are just below the surface of that area and any grass that is planted ultimately dies no matter how well watered and tended. The Properties Department of the Department of Education and Training has been asked for expert advice on how to rectify the problem, but it has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, this bare area is the only place on which to build a hall, and no-one seems prepared to spend money on it.
As the school is bound by three roads its playground area is limited and valuable. Currently the school uses Warragamba Town Hall, across the road from the school, when a hall is needed. However, it is rumoured that Wollondilly Shire Council is going to divest itself of the old Town Hall. I suggest to the Minister that it would be sensible for the department to purchase the Town Hall for the school, which could rent it to the council and other community organisations for general activities at night and on weekends. Warragamba has suffered from bushfires and the death of young people as a result of accidents during the past year. It would be nice if the Government could give them a pleasant surprise in the near future.
MYALL LODGE AGED CARE FACILITY
Mr J. H. TURNER (Myall Lakes—Deputy Leader of the National Party) [12.55 p.m.]: I refer to problems facing the Myall Lodge aged care facility at Hawks Nest as a result of the new bushfire legislation. The facility faces a complicated situation. I congratulate the RSL club and those associated with the facility for providing a wonderful service. There are currently 10 retirement units at Hawks Nest upon leased Crown land and there is a large portion of Crown land immediately adjacent to that leased Crown land area. The committee has recently received Commonwealth funding for 20 new units, which will be great because there is a dearth of retirement units in the area. However, if 20 units were built they could not get a buffer zone of up to 70 metres—it might be something less than that, but it will be a buffer zone—because the land immediately abutting where they are to be built on leased Crown land is Crown land, and the Act precludes them from using public land as a buffer.
I have met with the committee. We have had good conversations and inspected the site. The committee produced two letters—one from Mr Yeadon when he was Minister for lands and one from Mr Amery when he 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5927 was Minister for lands. Both letters confirm to the association that the other Crown land—not the land it presently leases—would be reserved, apart from it being identified as needed for a wildlife corridor, "under a reserve for future public requirements (accommodation for the aged and community facilities)".
So those Ministers have kindly said that the land can be used to expand the facility as the committee wants. That does not alter the fact that the land leased to put the 20 units on will still back onto some unleased Crown land that is fire prone. The legislation then catches the committee again. I have spoken with the Mayor of Great Lakes Council, who has told me that his officers have done all they can to try to get around the problem. However, they say that they are caught by the legislation. The committee has asked me to take the matter up. I have written to the Minister on this matter. I took the letter to him today but when this private member's statement slot became available I thought that I would take the opportunity to put it on the record.
In view of the letters from the previous Ministers the committee has been negotiating with the Department of Land and Water Conservation to try to get a lease over the entire land apart from the wildlife corridor. We would have to look at the legislation more closely but it is possible that that could fix the problem, because if the entire area is leased the committee may be able to clear the path needed for the buffer zone. Some reading between the lines of the Act may be needed in that regard because de facto it may still be classed as public land and be caught under the Act in the sense that public land cannot be used. I understand from discussions with the committee that the Department of Land and Water Conservation has been working on the matter. In one of the letters from the previous Ministers there is a reference to taking action in, I think, 1998 to try to sort out the leasing and the virtual transfer of the land across to the committee. But the committee has been told that it could take yet another three years for this leasing arrangement to be concluded.
Obviously, that would mean that the committee would lose the Commonwealth grant. There is a time limit in which to expend that Commonwealth grant to build the aged care facility, and it would be just a tragedy if the committee, and therefore the community, lost the benefit of 20 further aged care units in the high retiree area of Hawks Nest-Tea Gardens. Therefore I hope that the Minister will give favourable consideration to the matters I have presented to him both by letter and in this private member's statement so that this difficult problem can be fixed. It is bad enough that the legislation on fire-prone areas has impacted severely in relation to residential dwellings; but in this case it is obstructing the provision of a much-needed community service. Surely, if there is a will there must be a way to fix the problem.
Private members' statements noted.
[Mr Deputy-Speaker left the chair at 1.00 p.m. The House resumed at 2.15 p.m.]
SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES
Ministerial Statement
Mr WATKINS (Ryde—Minister for Education and Training) [2.15 p.m.]: One of the first major issues that was raised with me on my appointment as Minister for Education and Training last November was the need to closely examine special education services in our schools. Parents of special needs students, as well as teachers and unions, told me that they had concerns. That is why earlier this year I established a couple of major reviews to closely examine special education services. I asked Wayne Parkin, the District Superintendent (Tweed), to look at the specific area of low support integration. Subsequently, I asked Steve Buckley, a highly experienced senior departmental officer, to map all existing special education services to see what we were doing well and what we could do better. One of Steve Buckley's specific tasks was to draw the threads together to contextualise Wayne Parkin's work, to examine the implementation of a previous review undertaken by George Comino, and to have a look at the work undertaken by Tony Vinson as part of his public education inquiry.
Today I am able to release a co-ordinated 10-point plan to make the policy work better for students, staff and parents, and to remove anomalies and problems that currently exist whilst building on the underlying strength of our existing system. Let me first mention funding. It is undeniable that special education is well resourced in New South Wales. Since 1995 the funding has increased dramatically from $328.8 million to $515.1 million in the current financial year. The funding supports a broad range of services and programs including specialist early intervention classes and services, 106 special schools, and more than 1,300 special education classes. Special education funding also covers students with disabilities enrolled in regular classes under the integration program. Funding for this program is also at a record level. In 1995 funding was $7.7 million. For the 2002 school year it is $65.4 million. Despite those extraordinary funding levels it is clear that we need to do more. 5928 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
I turn now to point one of the plan. One of the major complaints I have received from schools— principals, counsellors, teachers and teachers' aides alike—relates to the extraordinary amount of paperwork relating to the integration program. For example, currently a student who is deaf, and always has been deaf, is required to be reassessed every year. That simply does not make sense, so it will end straightaway by slashing red tape for students with high and moderate support needs. Assessment will be needed only at schooling transition points, such as the move from year 6 into year 7. The impact in schools should be dramatic. For example, at Kelso High School there will be no form filling for the 2003 school year. This year, paperwork was needed for 13 students. At Bomaderry Public School paperwork will be needed for only one student, compared to 13 students last year. Across the board the department estimates that school staff who currently undertake those tasks—teachers, school counsellors and principals—will have 10 per cent more time to do what they do best, that is, their jobs.
I turn now to the second point of the plan. To get more special education options for parents on the ground, all 40 districts are currently mapping their local special education services. Gaps and strengths are being identified and new services are being planned. To assist in this task, district superintendents have received a detailed briefing about what is expected and how the department can assist. The aim is to ensure that parents are aware of the range of options available to best help their children. Point three of the plan is about realigning how head office looks after special education. Steve Buckley has assumed the senior oversight role. He has set about making sure that accountability and responsibility lines are clear. All assistant directors-general will now have direct responsibility for ensuring that special education services in their districts are responsive to the needs of schools and parents. They will be responsible for ensuring that the new district plans are implemented well.
Tony Vinson has drawn attention to the need for more teacher training and professional development. On my visits to schools in recent months the need for better support for classroom teachers and teachers' aides has been a constant theme. That is why I am pleased to announce today that point four of our plan will result in expenditure of an extra $2 million this year on additional professional development for teachers and other staff, providing 54,000 hours of training for teachers and teachers' aides special. That training will be provided this term and in term one next year.
Point five relates directly to the Parkin review that I mentioned earlier. His findings were echoed in the recent report by Tony Vinson. Both Wayne and Tony said that we must spend more money supporting in regular classes students with low support needs. That is why I am pleased to advise that this financial year's funding will be increased to $12 million. This extra funding will give classroom teachers and support staff additional help on an ongoing basis. The next part of the task is to find ways to simplify and improve the allocation of this funding. Wayne Parkin has made recommendations about how this might be done and the department has already started discussions with key groups about his suggestions.
Point six of the plan relates to the previous review undertaken by George Comino of the staffing of special schools and classes. Earlier this year a trial commenced of resource-based staffing, as proposed by George Comino. An evaluation is currently under way that includes an examination of the individual disability profile used to make decisions about students with special needs. I announce today that the Comino trial will be expanded in 2003. Discussions are currently under way as to where that expansion will occur.
The issue of medication of students is a vexed one in schools. Parents understandably want to ensure that their children receive the care they need. On the other hand, teachers and other staff have understandable anxieties about providing medication to children in their care. To ensure that the concerns of both groups are addressed better, point seven of the plan will result in the development and issuing of a new advice package for district superintendents and principals. This will be available for distribution at the start of the 2003 school year. Point eight relates to how the department can work more closely with other agencies that provide services for students with special needs. Departmental officials have commenced discussions with other agencies and groups about how to co-ordinate services better. Both Wayne Parkin's report and Tony Vinson have outlined ways that this might be done, such as in the delivery of therapy and mental health services.
The ninth point in the plan relates to providing greater support for students with behavioural or emotional disorders and also for children with autism. Teachers often call for most help in this area. This year more than $73 million is being spent on behaviour initiatives. But, as with the other areas that I have outlined today, it is clear that we need to do more. That is why every district is currently analysing the number and location of classes for students with emotional disorders and students with autism. Six additional emotional disorder classes have already been created in the Tamworth, Shellharbour, Hornsby, Queanbeyan and Batemans Bay districts. An autism class is currently being established at Leichhardt Public School and the new Kellyville 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5929
High School will have an autism class when it opens next year. More classes will come on line this term and at the start of the 2003 school year, and extra itinerant positions are being created to support students in more remote locations. The department's staffing unit is working closely with ADG Buckley to sort out staffing for these classes as a priority.
The final point in the plan relates to initial teacher training. A common complaint to me is that the current pre-service training does not adequately prepare new teachers to deal with behavioural or special education issues when they first hit the classroom. Honourable members will be aware that this year I established an interim committee for a New South Wales Institute of Teachers headed by Professor Alan Hayes from Macquarie University. I have asked Professor Hayes to have the interim committee examine as a high priority the adequacy of existing teacher training in special education and to suggest to me how it can be improved. I have also asked him to examine whether behaviour management studies can be mandatory in the pre-service teacher training curriculum.
The changes and improvements that I have announced today will build on the strong foundations of our existing special education services. I take this opportunity to thank Steve Buckley and Wayne Parkin for their outstanding work. I also make special mention of Ted Kenny from the New South Wales Teachers Federation, whose advice throughout the year has been invaluable. Finally, I thank all key groups for their assistance in getting to this stage and assure them that I look forward to our working together to implement the plans that I have outlined today.
Mr O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai) [2.28 p.m.]: Our children's entitlement to an education and the onus upon government to provide additional resources to ensure that those with special needs in our community also receive an education is paramount and should be beyond politics. My first frustration today is that the Minister for Education and Training gave no warning to parents and children with special needs in this State of his intention to deliver this significant statement. It underscores once again that this Government is concerned not about addressing needs but about political spin. I note that members of the British Parliament are visiting Parliament. I must inform them that this Government is Tony Blair's Government writ small. Alastair Campbell may be writ large in the form of Walt Secord, but this Government is more obsessed with spin than with addressing problems.
At the outset of his statement the Minister talked about the Government's significant increase in funding for special needs education. I accept that fact. However, the Minister must accept that review after review, report after report—including the Vinson report, which was commissioned by the Teachers Federation and the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations; it is not a report commissioned by the Coalition—has found fault with special education in this State. I have not seen the report undertaken by Mr Wayne Parkin, a report that I called for over a month ago, but without having seen it I am sure that it repeats the criticisms and failings that every other independent report in this area has found over the past nine years.
Since 1993 this State has had a Disability Services Act that requires governments to do certain things. In 1996 the Government commissioned a report about special needs education. Tony Vinson discovered, in his report only a month ago, just how little the Government has done. Despite significantly increasing expenditure in this area, children in this State cannot get their wheelchairs into classrooms and cannot physically access buildings. What sort of an indictment is that of the Government and the failure of the Labor Party to address seriously these issues?
I make the point that my colleague the honourable member for Wakehurst raised with me during the Minister's statement that this speech was big on generalities but had few specifics, particularly for those people living in country and regional areas of New South Wales. Whatever the pressures upon schools within city areas and whatever the pressures facing teachers in our classrooms in city areas, those pressures are magnified enormously in country and regional areas of this State. As the shadow Minister for Disability Services reminds me, in schools such as Forbes Public School there are multiple children with disabilities in classrooms, yet nothing in this package today provides the sort of relief that should be provided to them.
I express the hope—and it may well be a forlorn hope—that in the face of two reports in two months about special education in this State the Minister's 10-point plan is not about being seen to do something over the next five months before the State election but will genuinely help the parents and students engaged in special education in this State. I know of these concerns first hand. Sir Eric Woodward Memorial School at St Ives deals with children with special needs. I listened carefully to the resources and the statements the Minister made about the need to administer medication in those schools. I was surprised, therefore, that the department is still considering withdrawing a full-time nurse from a school such as Sir Eric Woodward Memorial School. If it is happening at one school in my part of Sydney, it is happening across Sydney and New South Wales. 5930 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
I will not quibble about the entitlement of parents of those with special needs for their children to get effective education in this State. I will support the Minister when that effective education is delivered, but I will continue to expose the Minister for the type of spin that the Government has engaged in over 7¾ years, which has failed those people. The Government has failed to provide the parents, the students or the teachers with the services they deserve and require.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Mr SPEAKER: I draw the attention of the House to the presence in the gallery of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association delegation from the United Kingdom, led by former Minister Mr Peter Kilfoyle.
PETITIONS
Urban Planning
Petition asking that the House address the need for urban planning designs to be decided by local communities, received from Mrs Hopwood.
Planning Control Reform
Petition requesting reform of planning controls by gazettal as a legal document, oversight by the Department of Planning, public benefit assessment of variations, and a ban on development-related donations to political parties and elected officials, received from Ms Moore.
Coffs Harbour Radiotherapy Unit
Petition praying for increased funding for establishment of a radiotherapy unit in Coffs Harbour, received from Mr Fraser.
Mental Health Services
Petition requesting urgent maintenance and increase of funding for mental health services, received from Ms Moore.
Queanbeyan District Hospital
Petition requesting that Queanbeyan District Hospital be upgraded, received from Mr Webb.
School Bus Safety
Petition praying that seats and seatbelts be provided for all students on school buses, received from Mr Debnam.
Blacktown to Castle Hill Bus Transitway
Petition requesting that construction of the Blacktown to Castle Hill Bus Transitway, proposed for the eastern side of Sunnyholt Road, be moved to the western side of Sunnyholt Road, received from Mr Gibson.
Hornsby Shire Rail Parking Facilities
Petition requesting additional commuter parking facilities at railway stations in the Hornsby Shire, received from Mrs Hopwood.
Mount Colah Traffic Arrangements
Petition requesting installation of traffic lights at the intersection of Foxglove Street and the Pacific Highway, Mount Colah, received from Mrs Hopwood.
Sydney Harbour Bridge Toll
Petition requesting reversal of the decision to increase the Sydney Harbour Bridge toll, received from Mrs Skinner. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5931
Spit Bridge Traffic Lanes
Petition praying that the House oppose the proposed addition of two extra lanes to the Spit Bridge, received from Mrs Skinner.
Richmond Regional Vegetation Management Plan
Petitions seeking extension of the exhibition period of the draft Richmond Regional Vegetation Management Plan, received from Mr Fraser, Mr George and Mr D. L. Page.
Underground Cables
Petition requesting that the House ensure that an achievable plan to put aerial cables underground is urgently implemented, received from Ms Moore.
Old-growth Forests Protection
Petition praying that consideration be given to the permanent protection of old-growth forests and all other areas of high conservation value, and to the implementation of tree planting strategies, received from Ms Moore.
Circus Animals
Petition praying for opposition to the suffering of wild animals and their use in circuses, received from Ms Moore.
White City Site Rezoning Proposal
Petition praying that any rezoning of the White City site be opposed, received from Ms Moore.
Graffiti Controls
Petition requesting further legislative changes to reduce graffiti on private and public property, received from Ms Moore.
Homeless Services Funding
Petition asking that homeless services funding be increased urgently and maintained until no longer needed, received from Ms Moore.
Surry Hills Policing
Petition seeking increased police resources for the Surry Hills Local Area Command, received from Ms Moore.
CONSIDERATION OF URGENT MOTIONS
Asian Languages and Studies Program Funding
Miss BURTON (Kogarah) [2.42 p.m.]: My motion is urgent because New South Wales students, no matter where they live, should have access to learning the languages of major significance in Australia.
Oasis Liverpool Development Independent Commission Against Corruption Inquiry
Mr O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai) [2.42 p.m.]: My motion is urgent because this is the most serious threat to the integrity and independence of the Independent Commission against Corruption since it was established. The partner of the chief of staff to the Attorney General of this State presided over the Oasis inquiry for 42 of its 61 days. My matter is urgent because, as a former chief of staff to a Minister, I know the direct interest that people in such positions have in maintaining their Minister's party in office. Despite Ms Moss standing aside because of concerns about the potential conflict of interest, she handed over this inquiry to Mr Pehm. Four days later allegations were publicly aired that million-dollar bribes had been solicited for the State Labor Party. 5932 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
My motion is urgent because the public of New South Wales has a right to know why alarm bells did not ring at that time: Why Ms Moss did not hear alarm bells, why Mr Pehm did not hear alarm bells, why Ms Mason did not hear alarm bells and why the Attorney General did not hear alarm bells. They should have understood from, at the very least, the point at which the State Australian Labor Party was embroiled in the Oasis development that it was inappropriate for the partner of the chief of staff of the State's Labor Attorney General to preside over that inquiry. My motion is urgent because the public needs to know why it took another 28 days, while Ms Moss was away on leave, for steps to be taken to appoint, in her words, "an appropriate person to be appointed as Assistant Commissioner to take carriage of this matter".
My matter is urgent because the public needs to know why Mr Pehm was allowed to continue to preside despite a clear, or at least perceived, conflict of interest. My matter is urgent because the State's Attorney General must explain how it is that the ICAC can issue numerous publications warning other public sector organisations to avoid similar conflicts of interest, but when it comes to its own area it seems to ignore it. My matter is urgent because the fifth most significant category of complaints to the ICAC about corruption in this State is conflict of interest. My matter is urgent because we deserve to know how it is that the ICAC can apparently stumble into this sort of conflict of interest that has cast a pall across the entire Oasis inquiry when the fifth biggest level of complaint to the ICAC from the public and the public sector is conflict of interest.
My matter is urgent because, at the end of the day, the Independent Commission against Corruption signs off on probity matters for this Government. The enormous, inherent conflict of interest is how an organisation can sign off on probity matters for the Government when the people undertaking those probity checks are literally living with members of the Government. My matter is urgent because we need to know how can it be appropriate for the partner of a senior adviser to a senior State Minister to be appointed to preside over an investigation by the ICAC into matters touching upon the State Labor Party. The answer is that it is not, and we need to debate it.
My matter is urgent because what has occurred is as inappropriate as if the chief of staff to Peter Collins, the then State Attorney General, was living with Ian Temby, who inquired into the Metherell matter. If that had been the case there would have been howls across this State. There are not, but there should be. My matter is urgent because this is a serious breach by the ICAC that threatens the way the public will view its report on this whole affair. My matter is urgent because this conflict of interest should never have been allowed to arise. My matter is urgent because, once it arose, greater haste was required to resolve it. The partner of the chief of staff to the State's Attorney General presided over the Oasis inquiry for 42 out of its 61 days. My matter is urgent because I spent the last term of Parliament defending the ICAC against attacks from the Labor Party.
I defended the ICAC against attempts to undermine confidence in the organisation by smearing a former commissioner. I defended the ICAC against the Government's efforts to limit its effectiveness by cutting back on the resources and budgets allocated to the ICAC. I did so because I believe a strong, independent ICAC with integrity is required if we are to have corruption-free government in this State. My matter is urgent because I need an answer. Never did I believe that fundamentally the people who would bring down the ICAC may well be on the inside. In the eyes of the public, the people who have created the biggest attack upon the integrity and independence of the ICAC have been the people who presided over this imbroglio.
Question—That the motion for urgent consideration of the honourable member for Kogarah be proceeded with—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 44
Ms Allan Mr Gibson Ms Nori Mr Amery Mr Greene Mr Orkopoulos Ms Andrews Mr Hickey Mrs Perry Mr Aquilina Mr Hunter Mr Price Mr Ashton Mr Iemma Ms Saliba Mr Bartlett Mrs Lo Po' Mr W. D. Smith Ms Beamer Mr Lynch Mr Tripodi Mr Black Mr Markham Mr Watkins Mr Brown Mr Martin Mr West Miss Burton Mr McBride Mr Whelan Mr Campbell Mr McManus Mr Woods Mr Collier Ms Megarrity Mr Yeadon Mr Crittenden Mr Mills Tellers, Mr Debus Mr Moss Mr Anderson Mr Face Mr Newell Mr Thompson 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5933
Noes, 34
Mr Brogden Mr Kerr Mrs Skinner Mrs Chikarovski Mr Maguire Mr Slack-Smith Mr Collins Mr McGrane Mr Stoner Mr Cull Mr Merton Mr Tink Mr Debnam Ms Moore Mr Torbay Mr George Mr O'Farrell Mr J. H. Turner Mr Glachan Mr Oakeshott Mr R. W. Turner Mr Hartcher Mr D. L. Page Mr Webb Mr Hazzard Mr Piccoli Mrs Hopwood Mr Richardson Tellers, Mr Humpherson Mr Rozzoli Mr Fraser Dr Kernohan Ms Seaton Mr R. H. L. Smith
Pairs
Mr Gaudry Mr Armstrong Mr Stewart Ms Hodgkinson
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ASIAN LANGUAGES AND STUDIES PROGRAM FUNDING
Urgent Motion
Miss BURTON (Kogarah) [3.01 p.m.]: I move:
That this House:
(1) expresses its disappointment at the Federal Government's decision to dismantle the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy;
(2) notes that this decision would lead to 183 New South Wales primary and high schools being forced to completely cut or reduce their Asian language courses; and
(3) calls on the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, to immediately reverse this decision.
The Federal Government should immediately reverse their decision to cut the National Asian Languages and Studies Strategy [NALSAS]. Dr Brendan Nelson is an absolute disgrace. What Australia needs is education policies that provide for the future of young people, not ones that wind back the clock. There is no doubt that this world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Australia's future place in the Asian region will rely on businesses and individuals being able to engage culturally with our closest neighbours.
The National Asian Languages and Studies Strategy was essential to making sure that our future relationship with Asia was secure. This strategy provided young people with language skills in Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Vietnamese. These languages hold massive economic and social importance, not only to New South Wales but to Australia. We cannot afford to be left behind. There is a wealth of opportunities opening up in Asia, and Australia is in a prime position to take full advantage of them.
Japan is the single largest trading partner of New South Wales, accounting for more than 20 per cent of State exports. Nationally, trade with Japan was worth $24 billion last year. Korea is Australia's third-largest trading partner and Indonesia is one of the world's most populous nations with more than 200 million people. China is the third largest trading partner of New South Wales and bilateral trade between China and New South Wales is worth about $5.3 billion annually. In light of recent events in Bali no-one could deny that the need for Australians to have language skills in Indonesia and an understanding of Indonesia is stronger now than ever before. With all of this money coming into the country from Asia how can the Federal Government possibly justify cutting Asian language courses? My guess is they cannot.
The Asian region accounts for over half the world's population. It is characterised by huge linguistic, economic, cultural and social diversity, yet the Federal Government has turned its back on a program that was teaching our children the languages and cultures of our neighbours. What we need from the Federal Government is a bit of leadership. What we get is shortsighted, self-defeating decisions such as this one from Brendan Nelson. 5934 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
I am the first to admit that the National Asian Languages Strategy was a successful one. The New South Wales Government received $6 million a year to provide 183 primary and high schools with teachers and support for Asian languages. This decision puts all of that in jeopardy. Essentially what it means is that the remaining State funds that this Government has available for all languages will have to be spread more thinly. It will receive funding of over $1 million a year to support language continuity programs for those 183 schools. It will mean that this Government's online and CD-ROM developments for Asian languages will have to be severely cut back. It will mean severe cutbacks to our capacity to provide teacher development opportunities.
So far this year over 950 teachers of the four targeted Asian languages in the strategy have participated in professional learning programs. Our capacity to support these same New South Wales languages teachers in the future will be slashed without this program. To put it in perspective, Japanese is now the second most studied language, with 1,239 sitting the Higher School Certificate Japanese examination in the coming weeks. This is up from just 56 students 20 years ago. In 2002 over 200,000 children are learning a language in New South Wales government schools and of these 43 per cent are learning an Asian language through the NALSAS strategy. This figure is testament to the success New South Wales has had in the implementation of this strategy; a strategy that was conceived and designed as a long-term undertaking, a strategy that was supposed to be supported with Federal funding until at least 2006.
In my local area there are six schools teaching an Asian language: Hurstville Public School and Kogarah Public School teach Chinese; Carlton South Public School, Blakehurst and Sydney Technical high schools all have Japanese courses. In fact, Carlton South is linked to Blakehurst High; the students begin learning Japanese in years 5 and 6, and they go on to Blakehurst High to continue their studies. St George Girls High School offers Indonesian, and a local student visited Indonesia in 1998 after receiving funding from this Government to study overseas. Dr Nelson's decision was first brought to my attention by the very concerned principal of Carlton South Public School, Christine Hosking. The students themselves wrote to Brendan Nelson begging him to restore the funding. The pathetic bureaucratic response they received was:
In 1999, when the Government extended its funding of $30 million a year for three years, it was on the understanding that the Strategy should have become self-sustaining in schools by the end of 2002.
That is basically saying, "Bad luck, not my problem". We have a Federal Government that continually shows it is willing to sacrifice anything, including the future of our young people, for their bottom line. By ending the NALSAS strategy the Federal Government is withdrawing funds that have underpinned the growth and development of Asian languages teaching in Australia. It is withdrawing support for a strategy that has not only been successful in Australia but has been closely followed and praised by the governments of our Asian neighbours. I know that the Minister for Education and Training has written to Brendan Nelson on a number of occasions, calling on him to reverse this ridiculous decision. I understand that Brendan Nelson has now commissioned a review of the Commonwealth Languages Other Than English in Schools program. This will consider the Commonwealth's role in languages education. I can only hope that the review will help the Minister see the error of his ways and reverse this decision.
Mr O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai) [3.10 p.m.]: The Parliament has become used to a succession of urgency motions being put up by Government members seeking to criticise the Federal Government for alleged failings. Indeed, in the last session the education Minister criticised the Federal Government for something that may happen in the future—but it had not happened. Today the honourable member for Kogarah has moved a motion that she said in her final words is a non sequitur.
Miss Burton: What?
Mr O'FARRELL: I will explain it to you later. The honourable member for Kogarah said in the final part of her contribution that the Commonwealth's Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon. Brendan Nelson, has announced a review of the Commonwealth school languages program, that the review will consider the Commonwealth's role in languages education and will report by the end of 2002. So in fact no decision has been made.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! The honourable member for Kogarah will cease interjecting. She has the opportunity to reply at the end of the debate.
Mr O'FARRELL: The honourable member admits that the decision is being reviewed. At the outset of my speech I move:
That the motion be amended by leaving out all words after the word "That" with a view to inserting instead "this House expresses concern about the State Government's continued attempts to divert attention away from its record on education". 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5935
I have moved the amendment because on a daily basis the State Government tries to divert attention away from its record in a whole range of areas. It would far prefer talking about what is happening in Canberra and in other States to talking about what is happening in New South Wales and being held to account for its policy failures in this State. Referenda were held 103 and 102 years ago, as a result of which, 101 years ago Australia federated. As a result of that Federation certain responsibilities went to the Commonwealth Government and certain responsibilities stayed with the then colonies, the now States. One of those responsibilities is public education. This Government is not prepared to have a long debate on education because its record is woeful. Honourable members opposite laugh, but I ask people in the public gallery to consider these facts and then consider what is woeful. A Government very admirably supplies 90,000 computers to our public schools. A Government spends over the same period $60 million providing security to those schools to stop computers being stolen. A Government after seven years boasts a record of one in nine of those computers having gone out of the gates of a public school.
A backbencher of that Government has said that it would be better to pile those computers on the school oval and invite the thieves to take them away rather than cause damage to classrooms by stealing the computers. That is the sort of record that this Government presides over. This Government by all means can point to beneficial programs that it announces; this Government can by no means point to successful outcomes of those programs. The Government pays our teachers for professional development. People in the gallery may think that professional development is important. It is important in many professions. It is certainly important to the teaching professions. Teachers dealing with students with specific learning difficulties can undertake a $750 training course with SPELD, the Specific Learning Difficulties Association of New South Wales. That course is designed specifically for teachers to improve their skills.
Mr Tripodi: Point of order: The honourable member's remarks do not touch on the fact that Asian language classes have been cut by the Federal Government. The honourable member is filibustering and trying to disparage the great system of public education in New South Wales. I ask that you direct him to speak to the motion and say whether he supports the cut. It is very simple.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! I understand the point of order taken by the member for Fairfield. I invite him to read the amendment moved by the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai, who is now speaking to that amendment. There is no point of order.
Mr O'FARRELL: I say as an aside to people in the gallery that we hope that our children learn the rules of debate better than the honourable member opposite has. He is failing in one of the fundamental rules of debate. The point that I will not be diverted from, the story that I will continue to tell for the benefit of people in the gallery, is that teachers who undertake courses with SPELD, to increase their professional development and increase their skills to teach children in public schools with learning difficulties, will have to pay $750 each. People might be surprised to know that the $750 will more than likely come out of the teacher's pocket, because this Government gives teachers the grand total of $26 each year for professional development. Think of any other occupation in which the allocation for professional development is $26 a year. Think of any other occupation in which it could be more crucial to ensure that those charged with the education of our young people are properly skilled and are able to provide those young people with the introduction to education that is so desperately needed in this world.
The Government is trying to divert attention from what it is doing and trying to focus on things it claims the Federal Government is doing. I make the point again for the benefit of the honourable member for Kogarah, who seems to have some hearing difficulties, that she said at the end of her speech that the decision is being reviewed. No final decision has been made. I will get personal for a minute. It irritates me as a member of the Liberal Party and a parent that honourable members opposite say that Liberals hate public education. During the past 7¾ years a succession of State Ministers for education have run the same argument. Yet in this Chamber participating in the debate today are two Liberal members of Parliament whose children are at public schools.
Mr Hazzard: And who went to public schools.
Mr O'FARRELL: And who went to public schools. We have a commitment to public education. We have a commitment to choice in education so that parents can send their children to the schools that they choose. But we understand that there is no real choice if public education is not adequately resourced and if parents believe that public education is not providing them with the outcomes they want for their children. That is why so many of them are deciding to send their children to non-government education facilities. Why would they do 5936 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 that? Public education is free; non-government education costs money. Why is it that parents actually take on extra jobs to send their kids to non-government schools? Does it say something about public education in this State? You bet your bottom dollar it does. And what will this Government do about it? Since 1996 enrolments in government schools in this State have gone down by 2 per cent, from 760,000 to 745,000.
Mr Tripodi: Shameful.
Mr O'FARRELL: Enrolments in non-government schools have gone up by 19 per cent, from 300,000 to 358,000. I agree with the honourable member for Fairfield that it is shameful that this Government every day will seek to divert attention away from the public education needs of students. It is shameful that it will waste money on a $60 million security program only to have one in nine computers stolen—$10 million worth of computers stolen out of a program that has been going for only six years.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Lynch): Order! The honourable member for Kogarah will come to order.
Mr O'FARRELL: It is time that the nonsense ended. We are less than five months away from an election campaign but it is time people such as those in the gallery got some answers from members of Parliament about things we are responsible for, such as public schools, teachers education, school security, student behaviour, discipline and gang attacks in schools. They are the issues that Parliament needs to debate. They are the issues we need to shine light upon before 22 March next year. We need to debate those issues so that next March people can make an informed choice about who will best lead this State and who will deliver the better education outcomes. However, we will not get that if Government members continue to try to divert attention away from the real situation, try to use the Federal Government as a bogeyman and fail to accept their responsibilities.
Mr GREENE (Georges River) [3.20 p.m.]: The honourable member for Ku-ring-gai spoke about diverting attention. This House has just seen one of the greatest, classic cases of someone trying to divert attention. Sadly, that magnificent acting performance by the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai, while it was entertaining for those in the gallery, had nothing whatsoever to do with this urgent motion. Obviously, he chose to put on such a performance because he had nothing to say about the motion. He moved a farcical amendment to the motion—he might as well have moved an amendment relating to the latest cricket test series against Pakistan. His amendment had as much relevance to the motion as his comments regarding the motion. That is sad, because this motion is relevant and needs to be considered by this House.
The Federal Government has some responsibility with education and that applies most specifically to public education in this State. The Federal Government has responsibility in funding the Asian languages program. In my electorate of Georges River language programs are diverse and strong. Three local schools teach Asian languages. Kingsgrove Public School has an extensive Chinese course. Earlier this year I needed to organise, through the Department of Education and Training, some additional classroom space at that school because of the expansion of that course. Beverly Hills Girls High School has a strong languages program, including Chinese. Peakhurst High School, part of the new Georges River College structure at Oatley, has a Japanese course.
The honourable member for Ku-ring-gai, who went to great lengths to get off the point, would be pleased to know that as a result of the creation of the Georges River College public education enrolments within my electorate have grown enormously. The seven to 10 feeder campuses of the Georges River College have full enrolments for next year, as they did for this year. The Oatley campus has a waiting list of 100 students for year 11 next year. Those figures indicate that public education is in a strong state following the reforms and funding given to it by this Government. In 1999 Peakhurst High School received funding from the State Government's program for language study in other countries for students to go to Japan. Beverly Hills Girls High School received funding from the same program to send students to China.
In 2002 alone 126 high school students from the Georges River electorate were granted scholarships to take part in intensive language studies overseas. Each year the State Government gives more than 600 senior secondary language students scholarships to undertake study overseas. That program gives students the opportunity to put their language learning to work. Evaluation of findings clearly show that this highly successful program is motivating students to continue their language studies and to link their language skills with other vocational skills. As indicated by the honourable member for Kogarah, it is important that we teach students languages, especially Asian languages. Although New South Wales funds those programs, our language program funding will now be stretched to cover the $6 million that the Federal Government is ripping out of that language program. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5937
We on this side of the House know that the study of languages is essential for all Australian students. It contributes to the development of the whole student and to the intellectual and economic potential of New South Wales. Learning a language develops skills to communicate with people of different cultures and helps students expand their view of the world. The study of languages develops students' literacy skills by improving their understanding and knowledge of English and contributes to the achievement of national goals such as economic development and national security. The Federal Government is sacrificing all of that. On behalf of the Asian languages students in my electorate I urge the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, to immediately reverse his decision. I apologise to the gallery that I presented facts and not a course in acting.
Mr HAZZARD (Wakehurst) [3.24 p.m.]: Mr Speaker—
Miss Burton: Here we go, another one!
Mr HAZZARD: I am delighted that the honourable member for Kogarah is so sympathetic of my supporting the amendment moved by the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai. For her edification, "non sequitur" means something that does not follow—and most of what she has said thus far does not follow. So she should be quiet and listen.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Lynch): Order! If members on the Government benches come to order the honourable member for Wakehurst might avoid straying from the subject matter of the debate.
Mr HAZZARD: As a former public school teacher, I have more than a passing knowledge of this topic. If the honourable member for Kogarah and the honourable member for Fairfield were students in one of my classes I would have put them out of the classroom by now. However, as members of Parliament we have to put up with their interjections. The teaching of Asian languages has a far more complex history than either member supporting the Government in this debate has put to the House. The Federal and State governments had arranged a trial of the program, and both governments recognised the significance of Asian languages. No-one would dispute that Asian languages are important, but this State Labor Government has a fundamental obligation to try to turn our attention away from an appropriate focus on its failings.
This should not come as remarkably new news to those opposite. They know that the Parents and Citizens Associations of New South Wales and the New South Wales Teachers Federation embarked on an inquiry, under the chairmanship of Professor Tony Vinson, to address many of the issues in public education on which the Government has failed. Members opposite should identify the concerns that were raised by Tony Vinson. The concerns include low professional status of teachers; lack of opportunities for ongoing professional development of teachers; overloaded and prescriptive curriculum; lack of training and support for new teachers; poor information technology access in schools; concern about building quality standards, including occupational health and safety requirements; and problems with school discipline.
My colleague the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai earlier identified school discipline problems. The Vinson report noted that more than 5 per cent of students lack the support that is needed to address discipline. The report also identified the need to support gifted and talented students; the impact of integration, that is of children with a disability, on both disabled children and students in the main stream; centralisation of administration and lack of authority of district superintendents; impact of outsourcing of school services, especially cleaning; and lack of funding, generally, for public education.
Tony Vinson identified those matters in his report. Government members should have looked at them more closely. I have previously mentioned the problems with tackling literacy. Schools in my area, including at Collaroy Plateau, have given up funding an extra literacy teacher because they do not see that as a core responsibility. They see that as the Government's responsibility. The net result is that after some years of the parents paying for an additional teacher to address literacy, because the Minister and the Government do not fund it, the students are not getting that attention because the parents believe that the Government should deliver those fundamental literacy outcomes.
There are nearly 5,000 children in foster care in New South Wales. During the past two years numerous reports have stated that we need to focus on education for children in foster care. Yet time and again it has been highlighted that there is no focus on the literacy needs of those children, most of whom attend government schools. I ask Labor members to stop the juvenile banter and to focus on the serious education issues. That is not to say that we do not agree that Asian language classes are extremely significant. However, the Government should focus on education as a whole and deliver on the big education issues for New South Wales. 5938 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Mr TRIPODI (Fairfield) [3.29 p.m.]: My copious notes begin by stating that the Federal Government's decision to cut Asian language classes is a disgrace. The State Opposition's support for that cut is also a disgrace. Opposition members' attempts today to defend the Federal Government's decision to cut $6 million from funding Asian language teaching in this country were an absolute disgrace. They are sending a clear message to the rest of the world that Australians are not interested in taking up the opportunities presented to us by buoyant economic growth in Asia. Opposition members are saying in effect that they do not want Australia to be engaged in Asia. Australia has a natural asset but Coalition members want not to embellish or enhance it but to run it down. They do not consider young Australians to be an asset. They do not want to develop their capacity to generate a better economic future for us all.
The Federal Government is willing to jeopardise the future of many young Australians so it can use that $6 million to fund the private, wealthy schools that received most of the money in the past. That is a woeful decision and an indication of the priorities of the conservative parties in this country. They shift money from public to private education and then wonder why enrolments decline in the public system. It is absolute hypocrisy. If we cannot speak the language how can we do business or even become involved in key strategic partnerships with our Asian neighbours? How will we take up the opportunities presented by changing world economies? Historically, Australia has been isolated from world areas of high growth. Now that economies in our region are finally starting to grow the Federal Government is rejecting the opportunities that this presents. The Australian people—particularly Asian Australians—will not forget John Howard's comments about Asian immigration. That is why Asian communities do not support the Coalition parties.
Mr O'Farrell: Point of order: I raise the issue of relevance. If there is no point of order, I remind honourable members of Gough Whitlam's comment about Vietnamese being, among other things, "f…ing Balts".
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Lynch): Order! There is no point of order.
Mr TRIPODI: It is a fundamental philosophy of the conservative parties that immigrants to this nation should be self-sufficient and make a contribution to Australia. Those immigrants asked only to be able to take English language classes upon their arrival. However, the first thing the Federal Coalition parties did upon their election in 1996 was cut English language classes. That pattern is being repeated now to save a measly $6 million. Adult Migrant English Services [AMES] classes used to be held in my electorate and in Liverpool, Mr Acting-Speaker's electorate. I remember well the pride of those students who achieved proficiency in English. They had the English classes they needed in order to make a contribution to this country.
Mr Hazzard: They are still held in my electorate; I must be a better member.
Mr TRIPODI: Shonky private companies provide that service now. The conservative parties cut AMES classes that empowered our immigrant communities. That is the legacy of the Federal Coalition Government. It is an absolute disgrace. To this day my constituents remember fondly the days when they could take quality English language classes in the local area and, as a consequence, participate actively in, and make a real contribution to, the community. They could get a job, pay taxes and provide for their families. The Coalition parties always hit education first. They will save a measly $6 million in this case. They have denied people the opportunity of learning English and becoming valuable assets to this country in order to save that measly sum, which will be redirected into the coffers of wealthy North Shore schools. The Coalition parties are looking after their own; they are putting more fat on the wealthy schools so that their students can take overseas trips and enjoy other similar indulgences. [Time expired.]
Miss BURTON (Kogarah) [3.34 p.m.], in reply: I thank the honourable member for Georges River and the honourable member for Fairfield for their contributions to this debate. As usual, the speech of the honourable member for Wakehurst was filibustering gobbledygook. The contribution of the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai was a joke. He has no commitment to public education. I have never heard the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai make a reasonable contribution in this place; he simply directs personal insults at Labor members. They say that politics is acting for ugly people. The speech of the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai was a classic example of the thespian prowess of the facially challenged.
This motion is an attempt to get Dr Brendan Nelson to reverse his decision, not refer it to some committee for review. The Federal Government has done nothing but continually cut funding for New South Wales public schools. Under the Enrolment Benchmark Adjustment Scheme, only 33 per cent of total Federal education funding goes to public schools while 66 per cent goes to private schools. That is a staggering amount 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5939 of money. In response to the unsubstantiated gobbledygook from those opposite, let me put that in perspective for those in the gallery. The fact is that the Federal Government has shifted millions of dollars from public education to private education. Where does that money go? An extra $1.5 million goes to Kings School, which has about 23 rifle ranges, 25 swimming pools, tennis courts and so. Yet it is federally funded from taxpayers' money while our kids cannot even learn an Asian language. That is an absolute disgrace.
Opposition members tried to defend that position and to divert attention from what is happening to our kids in public schools. They are a disgrace—and they know it. Their contributions were disgraceful. As usual, the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai hurled personal insults at me. That is well and good, but this decision means that the public system will suffer once again at the hands of the Federal Coalition Government. All students should have the opportunity to learn an Asian language. This country's future lies in Asia. The countries of this region are our closest neighbours and trading partners. Australia's cultural diversity and our children's legacy rely upon our ties with Asia.
Kids in years 5 and 6 at Carlton South Public School in my electorate are taught Japanese. They can continue to learn that language at high school to higher school certificate level. As a result of the Federal Government's decision, the classes will be cut and those kids will not be able to study Japanese until they go to high school. If the Feds were to cut funding from the toffs' schools, there would be howls of outrage. Coalition members claim to have some attachment to the public education system. One honourable member claims to have taught there, but I am a bit sceptical about that. If he did, I imagine the public system has been better off since he left—that was a great day for public education.
Mr Hazzard: Point of order: I raise the issue of relevance. The honourable member for Kogarah has only one minute and 14 seconds left in which to speak. We want her to reply to the debate rather than spout inanities.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. Opposition and Government members will come to order.
Miss BURTON: In summary, the motion asks the Federal Government to give back the $6 million without any review of the program because it is a success. Many kids in my electorate are benefiting greatly from this program. The Federal Government should give back the money so that we can get on with educating our children—all children, not just those of the select wealthy, elite few. The program will give all children an equal opportunity to participate so that they can have careers of their own choosing, not careers foisted on them because they were denied the opportunity to receive a proper education by the Coalition. [Time expired.]
Question—That the words stand—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 45
Ms Allan Mr Greene Mr Orkopoulos Mr Amery Mr Hickey Mr E. T. Page Ms Andrews Mr Hunter Mrs Perry Mr Aquilina Mr Iemma Mr Price Mr Ashton Mrs Lo Po' Ms Saliba Mr Bartlett Mr Lynch Mr W. D. Smith Ms Beamer Mr Markham Mr Tripodi Mr Black Mr Martin Mr West Mr Brown Mr McBride Mr Whelan Miss Burton Mr McManus Mr Woods Mr Campbell Ms Megarrity Mr Yeadon Mr Collier Mr Mills Mr Crittenden Ms Moore Mr Debus Mr Moss Tellers, Mr Face Mr Newell Mr Anderson Mr Gibson Ms Nori Mr Thompson 5940 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Noes, 32
Mrs Chikarovski Mr Kerr Mrs Skinner Mr Collins Mr Maguire Mr Slack-Smith Mr Cull Mr McGrane Mr Stoner Mr Debnam Mr Merton Mr Tink Mr George Mr O'Farrell Mr Torbay Mr Glachan Mr Oakeshott Mr J. H. Turner Mr Hartcher Mr D. L. Page Mr R. W. Turner Mr Hazzard Mr Piccoli Mr Webb Mrs Hopwood Mr Richardson Tellers, Mr Humpherson Mr Rozzoli Mr Fraser Dr Kernohan Ms Seaton Mr R. H. L. Smith
Pairs
Mr Gaudry Mr Armstrong Ms Harrison Mr Brogden Mr Knowles Ms Hodgkinson Mr Stewart Mr Souris
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Amendment negatived.
Motion agreed to.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Bill: Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders
Motion by Mr Aquilina agreed to:
That standing and sessional orders be suspended to permit the introduction forthwith and progress up to and including the Minister's second reading speech of the Business Names Bill, notice of which was given this day for tomorrow.
BUSINESS NAMES BILL
Bill introduced and read a first time.
Second Reading
Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone—Minister for Land and Water Conservation, and Minister for Fair Trading) [3.51 p.m.]: I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
The Business Names Bill takes into account the dramatic changes that have occurred in the way that business is conducted across the globe and completely updates the existing legislation. The bill helps Internet-based businesses in New South Wales to compete on a more level playing field in the international marketplace. Business names have been regulated in New South Wales and across Australia for many years. In New South Wales business names are regulated by the Business Names Act 1962. Registering business names allows people to identify business proprietors, thereby facilitating consumer protection. It also allows the Government to prevent businesses from using names that are offensive or misleading. Therefore, it is appropriate that the legislation is administered by the Department of Fair Trading.
The Business Names Act 1962 allows consumers and traders to identify and locate those trading under a business name through the Register of Business Names, which is a publicly accessible record of the names and addresses of the registered users of a business name. It also provides information about the nature of the business. To demonstrate the practical value of the register, honourable members might consider the case of the consumer who has received faulty goods and wishes to pursue a claim against a trader in a tribunal or court. If 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5941 the trader's business is suddenly closed down and moves to an unknown location the name and private address of the business proprietor may be obtained from the Register of Business Names, allowing the consumer to pursue legal action. The Register of Business Names also helps to safeguard the goodwill built up by a business.
Whether deliberately or accidentally businesses sometimes pass themselves off as, and take customers from, more established firms by taking advantage of the reputation or goodwill they have painstakingly built up. The register safeguards goodwill by allowing businesses to identify and avoid business names that are already in use. In this way accidental passing off is avoided. My department completed a review of the operation of the Act consistent with the Government's commitments under the Competition Principles Agreement. It is the Government's policy to ensure that the review process considers the full range of public benefits of legislation and that all views are considered before any reforms are proposed.
To achieve this a steering committee chaired by the Department of Fair Trading was established to conduct the review. The steering committee comprised representatives from a number of government departments, including the Department of Information Technology and Management, as well as industry associations such as the Australian Retailers Association and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. The review examined a range of issues relevant to the operation of the Act, notably the exponential growth of the use of electronic commerce and the Internet in the past decade. These issues were of particular importance because the emergence of electronic commerce over the Internet has introduced a new dimension to the New South Wales marketplace.
Consumers and traders now conduct many transactions by electronic means in the convenience of their homes and workplaces, crossing the geographical borders into a global marketplace. Undoubtedly, electronic commerce has triggered rapid improvement in productivity and has intensified competition. However, the electronic trading environment also raises valid questions about the effectiveness of State-based business names regulation. It was with these questions in mind that the review examined the costs and benefits of the Business Names Act. The review found any costs arising from the Act to be outweighed by the benefits delivered. The Act prevents the use of unsuitable words in business names and allows consumers to obtain relevant information about a good or service, namely, details about the trader's identity.
Where a dispute develops accurate information about the trader's identity is necessary if there is to be a speedy resolution of the dispute. Because the Act produces a net benefit, the review concluded that it should be retained. However, the review recommended that the legislation be finetuned to remove those provisions that could not be shown to produce a public benefit. The bill gives effect to the review's recommendations by maintaining the best features of the current legislation and removing provisions that are outdated, or that could not be shown to produce a net public benefit. The Government has also taken this opportunity to completely redraft the existing legislation so that it is expressed plainly in contemporary English.
I now turn to the details of the bill. The first provision of the bill to which I will refer is important. It exempts businesses based on the Internet from having to register and display a business name. In effect, Internet-based businesses will be permitted to carry on business under an unregistered business name. To be eligible for this exemption a business must take orders for its goods or services only over the Internet. As honourable members can imagine, only a very small percentage of New South Wales businesses will be eligible for this option. Traders who conduct their businesses in New South Wales off line as well, for example by setting up a shop to sell their products, will still be required to register and display a business name.
Honourable members may ask why we are exempting Internet-based businesses in this way. We are doing so because, although there may not be many of them, their nature makes traditional methods of regulation clumsy and ineffectual. Traditional methods of regulating business names tend to focus on locating where business is carried on. Depending on where the place of business is or where orders are being solicited from, the responsible jurisdiction can then apply the appropriate regulation. Internet-based trade is characterised by complex cross-boundary transactions that make it extremely difficult to determine which jurisdiction is responsible for regulating the particular transaction.
Internet-based businesses may have no place of business in the traditional sense of the word. Even if a place of business can be established it may not be in Australia. Indeed, many Internet-based companies are only a part of the New South Wales marketplace because their web site can be accessed by New South Wales consumers. An article in the 7 October online edition of the New York Times illustrates my point. The article concerns the music-swapping program called KaZaA. According to the article, Sharman Networks, the distributor of the program, is incorporated in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu and is managed from Australia. Its computer servers are in Denmark and the source code for its software was last seen in Estonia. 5942 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
KaZaA's original developers, who still control the underlying technology, are thought to be living in the Netherlands. But lawyers seeking to have them charged with violating United States copyright law have been unable to find them. The jurisdictional problems involved in trying to regulate Internet-based trade are reflected in the statistics. Of the approximately 29,000 complaints received by the Department of Fair Trading in the 2001-02 financial year, only 57 related to e-commerce. I have seen no evidence to suggest that the online marketplace is less problematic than other trading environments. In fact, the relatively low complaint statistics are, in all likelihood, due to the fact that many consumers are simply unsure about where to go for help when they get into trouble.
The review noted that the current administration of the Act does not involve pursuing domain name operators who are not based in New South Wales but whose web sites may be accessed by New South Wales consumers. As such, the review found that the requirement to register and display a business name disadvantages New South Wales Internet-based traders compared with other Internet-based businesses from around the world that are not required to comply with this requirement. If all Internet-based businesses were required to register a business name it would mean that traders, potentially from any jurisdiction in Australia or, indeed, any nation of the world, would have to register a New South Wales business name on the off-chance that the web site may be accessed by a New South Wales consumer. Accordingly, the review concluded that the benefits of ongoing regulation in this area are outweighed by the anti-competitive effects of the legislation. The review recommended that all Internet-based businesses be exempt from the requirement to register and display a business name. This bill gives effect to that recommendation.
That is not to say that we have given up trying to ensure fair trading over the Internet—far from it. Just because the Internet has a global reach does not relieve the Government of its responsibility to protect New South Wales consumers. What we are doing is recognising that the Business Names Act is not the place to regulate the Internet. One important step that we can take is to make sure that the Business Names Act complements the mechanisms that are being put in place to regulate the Internet. To this end, I will ask the Department of Fair Trading to consult with AusRegistry, au Domain Administration and the National Office of the Information Economy. The consultations will focus on minimising potential conflicts between the administration of the Act and those organisations' policies in relation to web site addresses, or domain names, and the regulation of the Internet.
Another feature of the bill is that it links the requirement to carry on business to the trader rather than to the business name. As it stands, the Act allows a trader to register a business name only if the trader carries on business under that name. The bill implements the review's recommendation that the requirement to carry on business be linked to the trader. As long as a trader is carrying on or intends to carry on business, any business, in New South Wales within the immediate future, the trader will be able to register multiple business names. At the end of the review traders applying for registration of a com.au domain name had to provide proof of registration as a business name, company, association or other recognised body. Only one domain name could be licensed per registered commercial entity. As a result, traders operating a single business had an incentive to register multiple business names in order to secure multiple domain names to increase their exposure on the Internet.
However, there are administrative and enforcement difficulties associated with traders registering multiple business names for the purpose of securing domain names. In certain circumstances it has been difficult to determine whether a trader is carrying on business where multiple business names are linked to the one business entity. In light of these factors, the national competition policy review found that the cost of monitoring compliance with this aspect of the legislation outweighs the benefit of ensuring that each registered business name is being used. The review concluded that traders have legitimate commercial reasons for registering multiple business names to maximise their marketplace exposure and that allowing them to do so would not compromise the objectives of the legislation. In fact, the review concluded that such an amendment would be pro-competitive and would not compromise consumer protection.
I point out that au Domain Administration, the agency responsible for administering Australia's domain space, subsequently amended its policy to allow multiple domain names to be derived from a single business name. This development strengthens the rationale for the proposed amendment. Just as au Domain Administration has found that there is little reason to limit domain names to one per entity, the Government believes that the interests of consumers are not served by limiting the number of business names that a trader may register. Some will suggest that allowing the registration of multiple names will allow traders to prevent other companies from entering the New South Wales market or will allow traders to sell business names at exorbitant prices. In response, I would like to make a number of points. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5943
The most important protection stopping traders from registering a business name to frustrate another trader's entry into the market, or selling the name at a huge cost, is the fact that the Register of Business Names does not confer any exclusive rights to a name. If a trader wants to gain exclusive or proprietary rights to the use of a particular business name, then the trader should approach Intellectual Property Australia [IP Australia]—the Federal Government agency that grants rights to trademarks—rather than simply registering a multitude of business names under the Act. I will ask the Department of Fair Trading to explore the development of formal data-sharing arrangements with IP Australia with a view to providing access to that agency's intellectual property registers at the time of registering a business name.
In addition, the bill will prohibit the registration of a business name if it is identical to or closely resembles an existing registered business name under which business is being carried on, and if the public would be likely to be misled if business were carried on under both names. The bill will allow someone to apply to register a business name that is similar or identical to an existing registered business name if the existing name has not been used in the previous two months. In these circumstances, the director-general may cancel the registration of the existing name if satisfied that the public would be likely to be misled if business were to be carried out under both names in New South Wales. There are also consequences for misrepresentation and misleading conduct under the Fair Trading Act and the Trade Practices Act. These factors will further limit the ability of those wishing to register business names for vexatious purposes.
I reiterate that the intention of the Act is to allow the identification of the person or company using a registered business name. As long as traders are carrying on or intend to carry on business in the immediate future and the traders provide correct and up-to-date contact details, I can see no problems allowing traders to register as many names as they like. The fees charged to register and maintain the registration of a business name will impose a limit on the number of business names that any one trader will be willing to register. The bill will also abolish the requirement that interstate traders must have a resident agent in New South Wales. The Act currently requires traders based outside New South Wales that are carrying on business within the State— defined as establishing a place of business in New South Wales and soliciting or procuring business from a person in the State—to have a resident agent in New South Wales who accepts on their behalf any notices served.
The review found that since the introduction of the Act in 1962 advances in communication and database technology have made it easy to locate and contact businesses based outside New South Wales. Having a contact address within the State and access to trader details in other State and Commonwealth registers will ensure that there are no significant costs associated with removing the requirement to have a resident agent within the State. Accordingly, the review recommended that the requirement be removed.
The bill provides the Administrative Decisions Tribunal with the jurisdiction to review determinations made by the department in relation to the registration of business names. Presently, should a trader object to the department's determination, the only avenue of review is through internal reassessment by a more senior officer. This is inadequate considering the significant commercial value that is often attached to business names, as well as development in administrative law since the commencement date of the Act. This change will provide for a more equitable and contemporary review mechanism.
Finally, the bill will improve the usefulness of the Register of Business Names by removing the fee to update details on the register and doubling the penalty for failing to update details. I am sure that these changes will assist in achieving a higher level of accuracy. In summary, the bill brings the regulation of New South Wales business names into the new millennium. It unshackles the State's Internet-based businesses from anachronistic requirements, increases the integrity of the Business Names Register, and removes anti- competitive restrictions on the number of business names that a trader may register. I commend the bill to the House.
Debate adjourned on motion by Mr Debnam.
PRIVATE MEMBERS' STATEMENTS
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Mr WHELAN: I seek the leave of the House to have up to four private members' statements noted forthwith.
Leave granted. 5944 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
WENTWORTHVILLE ELECTORATE SCHOOLS
Ms ALLAN (Wentworthville) [4.11 p.m.]: I thank the House for the opportunity to talk about a couple of issues that relate to schools in my electorate. On Sunday I will attend the student reunion at Girraween Public School in my electorate. Girraween Public School is 83 years old. I am delighted to say it is the school that I attended during my infants and primary school years. I congratulate the new principal of that school, Karen Junor. The school has had a series of very successful principals in the past decade, and is an extremely strong school with a large multicultural student community.
Girraween Public School is currently campaigning about various issues. Principal Karen Junor and the chair of the school council, Councillor Peter Hurlinger, the former Mayor of Holroyd, recently visited me in my electoral office to discuss the need for a school hall. For as long as I have been aware, Girraween Public School has been very pleasantly located on an extremely large tract of land in the suburb of Girraween, which, for those who are not familiar with that part of western Sydney, lies between the railway stations of Pendle Hill and Toongabbie. Girraween Public School has oodles of vacant land and I have suggested to the school council and school executives that perhaps we should create at an opportunity to develop some of that land, so long as the Department of Education and Training is in agreement, with the aim of eventually providing a much-needed school hall. That is something that the school council and the parents and citizens association are currently considering.
I am looking forward very much to Sunday morning. I will take my children along so they can see those wonderful buildings in which their mother was educated. I have very fond memories of my schooling days. When I was at primary school Gough Whitlam was the Federal member for the electorate. His electorate extended from near Blacktown across to Cronulla, and Girraween was part of that electorate. The only creativity I ever managed to manifest in my entire life was in flower arranging, and I won a flower arranging competition in Year 2. Margaret Whitlam presented the prize. Unfortunately, I did not pursue that career.
Other schools in my electorate are comparable to Girraween Public School. Wentworthville Public School, which is the school my son attended, Darcy Road Public School, and Beresford Road and Greystanes schools are very similar schools, with similar school populations and similar issues. A number of them are very keen to have their facilities improved. Recently I had a meeting with the chair of the school council of Wentworthville Public School, which is very keen for the Government to provide a new library. The school and I are working on a strategy to achieve that. I am looking forward to a meeting next week with the local superintendent of schools in my electorate to discuss ways and means of achieving some of these objectives.
In recent days Darcy Road Public School had some excellent news. The school came to me recently seeking a repositioning of its school entry. Darcy Road Public School, as its name would indicate, is on Darcy Road, which is a very busy thoroughfare often used by people as they commute to Westmead Hospital or between Blacktown and Parramatta on roads other than the Great Western Highway. The entry to Darcy Road Public School has been very dangerous for some time. The State Government recently allocated $30,000 to the school to reposition the entry. In addition, funding was provided for a shaded area earlier this year. Tomorrow I will join the President of the Darcy Road Parents and Citizens Association and also the Principal of Darcy Road Public School to celebrate the imminent repositioning of the school entry. Several schools in my electorate are dealing with a number of issues. I urge them to approach me to work out solutions to achieve their objectives.
ANTONY DAVID LIBERALE PRESCHOOL, CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI, ITALY
Ms SEATON (Southern Highlands) [4.16 p.m.]: I wish to advise the House about some very special people in my electorate, Robyn and Luciano Liberale, their beloved son Antony, and a relationship with a wonderful place called Cividale del Friuli, which is Luciano's place of origin. To give the House some background to this relationship, honourable members will remember the terrible landslides in northern Italy many years ago. Australians and Italians donated a lot of money to rebuild many of the public facilities in towns that had been their places of origin, including the Rualis preschool.
Several years ago, on an extended visit to Cividale del Friuli, young Antony attended the Rualis preschool. Sadly, Antony lost his life to illness during childhood. He is sadly missed, but his memory will live forever due to the generosity of the community of Cividale, who this year, on 25 May, dedicated the preschool to his name in a special ceremony in the presence of his parents and many family friends. I acknowledge the special relationship between the Liberale family, Cividale del Friuli, and the people of New South Wales that was demonstrated by this ceremony, and recognise the great honour brought to the relationship by the many people who attended that ceremony led by Mayor Dr Attilio Vuga. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5945
The people who attended the ceremony included Mayor Dr Attilio Vuga, Father Don Mario di Cenira, the Director of Education for Friuli Province, the Minister for Friuli Province, representatives of newspaper Friuli del Mondo, the Cividale Brass Band, members of the Alpine Corpe Association, the police representative, the customs representative, past and present teachers and council representatives. I saw a video of the 110 preschool children, who looked magnificent and sang beautiful songs.
Australian Embassy representative Ms Linda Keevers, the second under-secretary, and many Italian family members and friends, including Pina Bortone, Germana Coceani, Lucio Coceani, Nicoletta Coceani, Stefeno and Julia, Anna Liberale, Paolo and Fabia Turco and son Andrea, Mara, Nino Davide and Louisa, the family Cocotti, the family Gigi Pastell and the family Franco Miani attended the ceremony, just to name a few. Andrea came from Spain, his mother and father came from Milan. Australian visitors and Australian friends from England included Daniela and William Gooden, Christina Liberale and Darryl Harper, Mark Revelant, a nephew from Cooma, and Margie, John and Lyndy Hill, Margaret and Colette Clement, and Dr John Hewson. Nick Ryan and friend Jessica also attended.
It was a marvellous celebration and children were a very special part of the day. A special story was written by the children about a character called Filberto the frog who went on an adventure to Australia, a metaphor for the life and the journey of Antony. He found surprising things, wonderful animals, a new language and a very happy welcome with the Liberale family, whose door he just happened to knock on according to the story. He found a welcome from Luciano and Robyn. Such is the happy ending of fairytales. Whilst Robyn and Luciano will never see Antony grow up into the fine adult we know he would have been, he is forever beloved. He was described by the teachers in the dedication at the naming of the preschool in the following words:
There was a time when a child used to play without a care in this school and then he took with him to a faraway land the shared voices, looks and smiles of Friuli... We dedicate to him this day and the school that will be named after him "Antony David Liberale" so that everyone knows that it was a gift, just as he was.
Everybody who attended the ceremony received a beautiful illustrated card. I am very privileged to have been given one. Each card was illustrated and coloured by one of the children at the preschool. As a memento of the occasion I was also given a ceramic plaque, which was decorated with a beautiful design. All the special guests received a special copy of the book of Filberto's trip, Il Viaggio de Filberto, which is coloured and illustrated by the children. Every page has an individual artwork. It is absolutely magnificent. The preschool children also illustrated the voyage of Filberto, including pictures of kangaroos and their impressions of life in Australia. It was a moving ceremony and the Liberale family want to express their appreciation to the city fathers of Cividale. [Time expired.]
UNITINGCARE NAREEN GARDENS
Mr McBRIDE (The Entrance) [4.22 p.m.]: I inform the House about the annual dinner of UnitingCare Nareen Gardens, which is located at Bateau Bay in my electorate. I have been associated with the organisation since becoming the local member. A number of different organisations provide residential aged care services and community support services to thousands of people at Bateau Bay. Presentation of the annual report was carried out by David Goodhew, the chief executive officer. David is the son of the former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. The organisation started out providing basically residential aged accommodation but it now provides an enormous number of services. Community aged care is provided by Uniting to Care and Corella Cottages Day Respite at Bateau Bay, Hamlyn Terrace and Terrigal.
Self-care units are at Matuta Lodge, Leech Close, Narara; Nareen Gardens, Bias Avenue, Bateau Bay; and Nareen Warnervale, which was only recently opened at Louisiana Road, Hamlyn Terrace. Residential aged care is provided at Matuta Lodge Hostel, Leech Close, Narara; Nareen Gardens Hostel, Yakkalla Street, Bateau Bay; Nareen Lodge Dementia Unit and Respite Centre, Yakkalla Street, Bateau Bay; Nareen Gardens Nursing Home, Yakkalla Street, Bateau Bay; and Nareen Warnervale Lodge Hostel, Louisiana Road, Hamlyn Terrace. Services for people with disabilities—I commend UnitingCare for taking on this responsibility on behalf of the community—are provided by Towards Independence Accommodation Service, Disability Packages, Transitional Enterprises, which is funded by Central Coast Health; and Central Coast Work Services.
Well over 520 staff are associated with all those organisations servicing at least 700 people plus their families and friends. Currently the organisation runs at a budget of more than $13 million per annum, and it is continuing to increase. The nature of the services has had to change. People enter at the lower age limit when an aged care organisation opens but now that the service has been on the Central Coast for 20-odd years the 5946 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002 average age of people in the units is increasing. Resident dependency has increased significantly. This is an issue for many of the aged care services on the Central Coast. In Nareen Gardens over the past four years there has been a 50 per cent increase in residents with higher dependency levels. This brings with it increasing support needs and problems for staff to resolve. In what is always a challenging environment—I have to commend everyone who works in this area, having met many of them over the past few years—providing quality service can be difficult as people age and their needs increase.
I give credit to the board of management, some of whom I know personally. They include Mr and Mrs Templeman, Mr and Mrs Gosby, Mr and Mrs Cooper and Mr and Mrs Scott. I know Hilton Scott personally and my daughter at one stage was an employee in his pharmacy. Other board members include Messrs Dodd, Starrett, Scherer, Bott, Moore, Dawson, Pearsall, Fergus and Arnold, and Reverends Shepley and McSwan. All these people contribute to making this quality service one of the best available in New South Wales, if not in Australia. Most important are the staff who work there. On the presentation night I had the opportunity to meet and talk with many of the staff who attended. Every one of those staff is a quality person committed to providing services to elderly people over a whole range of areas as I have already outlined.
LAKE CARGELLIGO WATER TOWER ACCIDENT
Mr R. W. TURNER (Orange) [4.26 p.m.]: Today I refer to a very serious accident that occurred at Lake Cargelligo and the importance of the CareFlight helicopter based at Orange. On Tuesday 22 October a section of the roof of a water tank being constructed at Lake Cargelligo collapsed, resulting in two deaths and serious injuries. The Central Western Daily reported:
Orange-based medical personnel played a pivotal role in the emergency rescue operation at Lake Cargelligo on Tuesday...
After notification of the collapse of the scaffolding inside the concrete water tower, Orange Base Hospital intensivist Dr John Lambert, paramedic Warren Mannion and CareFlight doctor Col Robshaw flew to the scene, meeting Orange paramedic Ian Johns at the site.
All men have paid tribute to the initial assessment and actions of Lake Cargelligo ambulance officer Mark Goodger.
With two injured workmen already removed and taken to hospital, paramedic Johns was hoisted into the tank and lowered down the side. He described the devastation of the collapsed scaffolding as akin to a set of fallen "pick-up" sticks.
He located a third injured terrified victim who was impaled through the knee and thigh by a metal pipe and was initially only able to access the patient's arm which was fortuitous for the administering of morphine and fluids to the highly distressed victim.
Dr Lambert, who used his abseiling experience for his vertical manoeuvre to the bottom of the 18-metre water tower, was the next to be lowered into the tank to assist.
Both men say anxiety about the stability of the fallen scaffolding took a back seat to their focus on rescuing the victim.
"The most important thing for us was to make an accurate medical assessment...
The next task ahead was to use hand-held "jaws of life" lowered into the tank to saw off the ends of the metal pipe in the man's leg, so the victim could be placed on a spine board and litter and taken to the surface.
Adding to the difficulty was a shower of concrete pieces raining down on the rescuers and victims during the five-hour rescue ordeal. The Orange medical team say the exceptional circumstances surrounding the rescue will etch the experience in their memory.
Yesterday all four Orange men were back on duty at Orange Base Hospital, the ambulance station and CareFlight. "This whole experience is about the services of NSW Health at its greatest", Dr Lambert said. This incident highlights how important it is to have a helicopter retrieval service in Orange to service the whole Central West. It also highlights the internal politics that have been going on in the past few weeks regarding the ongoing funding of that helicopter service. There is an agreement between CareFlight, the Orange Base Hospital and the Mid Western Area Health Service. However, there was a cessation of transfers between the hospitals because of this funding dispute.
On Tuesday 22 October an emergency occurred but it was not affected as funding was provided. The breakthrough came when the Orange Base Hospital called CareFlight twice for a special circumstance emergency transfer. Anaesthetists were not available in Dubbo so they were called in from Orange, and transferred by the CareFlight helicopter, to carry out an emergency operation. On a long-term basis all the authorities must sort out their differences. CareFlight and Child Flight emergency helicopter services receive enormous public support, and we cannot let those services be threatened through interdepartmental funding disputes. People in rural New South Wales deserve medical services equal to those available to people in Sydney. In the Central West we have CareFlight, based in Orange, and its services must not be inhibited through internal politics.
Private members' statements noted. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5947
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
______
ENGADINE BUSHFIRE INVESTIGATION
Mr BROGDEN: My question without notice is directed to the Premier. Given that residents of Thurlgona Road, Engadine, are still waiting to be told the results of Sydney Water's investigation of how the bushfire that destroyed 10 homes and damaged others started, will the Premier make public the findings of those investigations? Why has this investigation taken two weeks to complete?
Mr CARR: I am advised that investigations are being carried out by police, who are co-operating with the Coroner.
Mr Brogden: Did Sydney Water start the fire?
Mr CARR: That is what we all want to know. I have said publicly that if it is established that Sydney Water had generated the fire, as evidence suggests, Sydney Water will accept full responsibility and pay comprehensive and generous compensation.
NATIONAL COUNTER TERRORISM PLAN
Ms MEGARRITY: My question without notice is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the House on his meeting today with State and Territory leaders and the Prime Minister on national security?
Mr CARR: Today the Prime Minister, all State Premiers and Chief Ministers met in Canberra. We gathered first as representatives of the nation to mourn the Bali dead at a solemn ceremony in the Great Hall of Parliament House. We gathered to express our undivided and unshakeable resolve to combat terrorism and ensure that the risk of an attack on the Australian homeland is minimised. We met—one Liberal leader, eight Labor leaders—in a spirit of partnership. It was an unprecedented display of co-operation with only one subject on the agenda, and that was the national interest. On behalf of New South Wales I signed the Intergovernmental Agreement establishing the National Counter Terrorism Committee. The agreement provides that the National Counter Terrorism Plan, which will ensure Commonwealth, State and Territory co-operation and co-ordination on national terrorist situations, is in place as soon as possible.
The agreement means that the Commonwealth will take responsibility for attacks on Commonwealth targets, attacks on more than one State or Territory, threats against civil aviation, and threats involving chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials. The Commonwealth will take responsibility for those national terrorist situations in agreement with affected States and Territories. After signing the agreement, the Heads of Government were briefed by the heads of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Underlining it all was an awareness of the increase in security risk that we face. In short, there was no disagreement from any jurisdiction that Bali brings terrorism closer to Australia. The risk is greater, and it is closer.
With the National Counter Terrorism Committee created today, we have the mechanism to deal expeditiously with that risk. The new institutional arrangements and the new higher level of co-operation between the Commonwealth and the States will create the basis for a degree of national security probably not seen since the days of World War II or perhaps the Korean War. At our meeting I raised the need for us to begin work immediately on the kinds of matters that I had discussed with the House on Tuesday. The Prime Minister's response, and I give him credit for it, was "We will look at anything", thus capturing the task before us to bring clear, fresh thinking to the challenge of minimising the chance of a serious terrorist strike on Australian soil.
That means that the New South Wales counter-terrorism strategy will be referred immediately to the new National Counter Terrorism Committee. That covers the matters that I raised in the House. In answer to the honourable member, I say that I think this is very important. The principle of Australian defence personnel being deployed to protect, for example, Lucas Heights, is a high priority. At the present time, under the legislation passed by the Commonwealth in September 2000, the armed services could be called out effectively after an act of violence. I want a lower threshold. I want to see Commonwealth defence personnel called out to protect critical infrastructure when a level one or a level two threat is made, when we are advised by the experts that a threat is on its way. 5948 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
That would be very important for the people of the Sutherland shire, living as they are with Australia's only nuclear reactor. The other matters that I will have forwarded to the newly invoked committee will be the review of intelligence and information-sharing arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories; adoption of international best practice on counter-terrorism laws; increased funding for the counter- terrorism capacity and first-call attack responses of the States and Territories; and the setting up of a Ministry of Homeland Security. They are the other matters that we in New South Wales will submit to this newly created committee.
After today's meeting the Prime Minister announced that the Commonwealth will introduce a new offence of extraterritorial murder to deal with situations in which Australians are victims of terrorist outrages abroad, will establish a standing reward of up to $500,000 for anyone providing information leading to the conviction of a person for a terrorism offence, and will provide an additional $12.3 million over five years to employ additional airline liaison officers to identify and counter document fraud and strengthen visa security arrangements.
The Commonwealth will provide $15 million to Customs over four years to assist with the detection of fraudulent travel documents. There will be further enhancements to ASIO, the Australian Secret Intelligence System and the Air Security Officer Program, and $31.7 million will be allocated over five years to improve security at diplomatic posts abroad. Those announcements underscore the urgency of our deliberations and the spirit of co-operation—because I support all of them—and indeed the partnership between Canberra and us that governs our priorities in this post-Bali period.
I will refer briefly to hand guns, which were also a topic of deliberation today. We cannot pursue security from terrorism if we do not also pursue security from the terror of criminal violence in our homes and public places, such as universities. The Prime Minister placed before the meeting today detailed proposals for tighter control of hand guns in the community. I point out the very strong measures that we have in place in New South Wales, including—on the advice of police—a number that go well beyond those presently prevailing in other jurisdictions. There is a lot for us to consider in the Prime Minister's proposals, and we will do so through the Justice and Police Ministers councils, which will report to the Council of Australian Governments on 29 November.
Disappointingly, there is nothing in the Prime Minister's proposals about the problem of the importation of guns. The recent incident in Melbourne was quite unusual in that the outrages were committed using legally held, licensed guns and by a person who allegedly belonged to a gun club. In other words, he held a number of weapons in accordance with the prevailing law. Most crimes committed with hand guns involve imported guns that have come into this country through Australia's poorest borders. They get in in containers that are not X-rayed or through airfields in northern Australia that should not exist and are then sold on the black market. I do not have the police figures at this time but I dare say that something like 80 per cent of crimes committed with hand guns involve guns that arrived in this country in that fashion, not guns that were diverted from sporting shooters.
All the Prime Minister's proposals will be considered, but we believe that the problem of legally imported hand guns must be added to the list. I raised that issue today and the Prime Minister agreed to consider it. This was another reflection of the co-operative, bipartisan tone that marked this day and all of our national security considerations since the tragic events of September 11 and of Bali. I pledge to continue that approach without fail.
WORKCOVER DEFICIT
Mr SOURIS: My question is directed to the Premier. Why did the Government accept the recommendation of the Auditor-General and include the value of unoccupied Crown land in its balance sheet but ignore the Auditor-General by not including the $2.8 billion WorkCover deficit? Is it Labor policy to count assets but ignore liabilities?
Mr CARR: The champion of Luna Park—just across the bridge and just for fun! That accounting genius conspired to lose $50 million of taxpayers' money on a fun park. I will refer the question to the Treasurer.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the National Party to order. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5949
ROADS AND TRAFFIC AUTHORITY CRASHCAM TECHNOLOGY TRIAL
Mr MILLS: My question is directed to the Minister for Transport, and Minister for Roads. What has been the response to Japanese technology known as CrashCam, trialled by the Roads and Traffic Authority in Darlinghurst?
Mr SCULLY: I advise the House that the Roads and Traffic Authority [RTA] is currently trialling a new high-tech accident detection and recording system.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order.
Mr SCULLY: The CrashCam technology is a small camera that films continuously and is attached to a microphone that listens for sounds associated with road accidents, such as screeching brakes, skidding tyres, breaking glass and the distinctive thud of metal on metal. The system records on video the five seconds before and after the incident.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I place the honourable member for Wakehurst on two calls to order.
Mr SCULLY: This means that for the first time road safety experts will have access to footage of the causes of road accidents and near misses at intersections. Busy intersections can be dangerous places. For example, the first location for CrashCam is the corner of Oxford and Crown streets in Darlinghurst. In the past two years alone 22 accidents have occurred at this location, resulting in 19 injuries.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Lachlan to order.
Mr SCULLY: Since CrashCam was installed two months ago almost a dozen near misses have been recorded, including a pedestrian mishap. Intersections are designed according to Australian road rules and design standards. However, there are ways of making them safer, such as erecting warning signs and lights, higher traffic light poles, altering the phasing and timing of traffic lights and so on. We must identify sites with bad accident histories and understand the types of accident occurred and how they occurred and what steps could be taken to improve the situation.
To date, most of this work is compiled by analysing accidents after the event—records of towed vehicles, police traffic accident reports, hospital records detailing fatalities and serious injuries and the thoughts of health authorities as to why those fatalities and injuries occurred. We now have technology that can provide real-time data about an incident and the moments preceding and immediately after it. That will assist the Roads and Traffic Authority enormously in assessing how to make intersections and the road network safer. Honourable members on both sides of the House have pointed out—particularly in relation to school intersections—that near misses, near bumps and close calls almost always go unrecorded.
Mr Debnam: What are "near bumps"?
Mr SCULLY: The honourable member for Vaucluse should listen; this is an important initiative. The Government is embracing technology so that we no longer have to rely only on post-accident data. Instead of allowing near misses to go unrecorded we can use this data to determine where they occur and change the configuration of intersections to make them safer. CrashCam will record the events leading to an accident or a near miss. This will enable the RTA to answer questions such as: Why did the vehicle go through a red light? Why did the truck stop too suddenly? Is this a one-off accident or is a trend developing at this intersection?
Japan and the United States of America recently started to use this technology to improve road safety. The CrashCam technology was developed from sport: It was originally designed in Japan to assist golfers with their swing. The microphone is calibrated to pick up the sound of the club hitting the golf ball. That technology has apparently proved very useful for golfers in Japan. It has been developed to be used for road safety purposes at intersections. The microphone detects the noise of the accident and immediately records on video the moments before and after it. The Government will trial this technology and we will use it at other intersections. I believe it offers the promise of great road safety improvements in the future and I congratulate the RTA on embracing this worthwhile initiative.
KENMORE HOSPITAL SITE REDEVELOPMENT
Ms HODGKINSON: My question is directed to the Minister for Public Works and Services. Given the potential for the redevelopment of the 200-acre Kenmore Hospital site at Goulburn to become an educational campus catering for up to 5,000 students, why will the Minister not release for community consideration details of the two proposals still under consideration? 5950 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Mr IEMMA: For precisely the reason that they are still under consideration. There is a preferred proponent with whom negotiations are taking place and they will take some time. When the tender process is complete, proponents who do not succeed always have available to them a full and comprehensive briefing. However, I would be more than happy to release whatever information the honourable member would like once the process is complete.
DROUGHT ASSISTANCE
Mr BLACK: My question without notice is directed to the Premier. What is the latest information on drought in New South Wales and related matters?
Mr CARR: The other night I was with my friend the honourable member for Murray-Darling going through summer rainfall figures. An area just south of Broken Hill has had the driest April to September period since rainfall records began. The suffering of the people in this region is a matter of hilarity to the Leader of the Opposition. No wonder he is going so badly in the country. He went to Orange and said, "It's a waste of money for the Premier to come to Orange so often." The Central Western Daily thinks it is great for me to go to Orange. Enough of these distractions. I will talk about the drought. In the past two weeks hot weather has made the situation even worse. A few short months ago cattle was selling for more than $600. Now prices have fallen to just $16.
Mr D. L. Page: Whereabouts?
Mr CARR: I do not want to embarrass you by telling you and revealing your ignorance. The State Drought Co-ordinator, Geoff File, advises me that the State is so dry that only sustained, above-average rain will have any significant effect. Let me say a few words about the public servant Geoff File. He has been with the department since 1967. I suppose the Leader of the Opposition would sack him like he would sack Koperberg. The headline states on the front page, "Carr: five visits to Orange in 2002", and the Leader of the Opposition says it is a waste of money for me to go to Orange! No wonder he does not want me to go to Orange. The Leader of the Opposition is saying he will sack Geoff File. He is saying he will sack the State Drought Co- ordinator, as he will sack Phil Koperberg. What a disgrace! Geoff File has worked without fear or favour for Labor and Coalition governments. What a happy memory it must be that in 1994 the then Government was actually referred to as the Fahey-Armstrong Government. We went off together and got the Olympics for New South Wales. I was there. Remember my victory leap? All the enhanced videos are showing my victory leap.
[Interruption]
What is the problem? I have not heard of the honourable member for Vaucluse for so long. Does he have a contribution? No. Down in the Southern Highlands on Sunday they are talking about Noelene Brown as the next member. In 1994 the then Fahey-Armstrong Government appointed Geoff File as the official State Drought Co-ordinator. He is without doubt Australia's leading expert on the management of drought and natural disasters. I remind the House that on 10 September officials from NSW Agriculture hand delivered a 180-page exceptional circumstance application for Bourke and Brewarrina to the Federal Minister for Agriculture. We took it down there; we hand delivered it. Exceptional circumstance approval has this effect: It unlocks access to income support and interest rate subsidies for businesses. Admittedly, it is only $170 a week but it can put some food on the table of drought-affected families.
But is that money flowing? Despite our hard work to get the application to Canberra, is the Commonwealth Government helping drought-stricken farmers in New South Wales? The answer is no. Has the Commonwealth approved yet the exceptional circumstance application for Bourke and Brewarrina? The answer is no. Are farming families in drought-affected areas receiving income support to put food on the table? The answer is no, and the same applies to rural businesses. All the Commonwealth has done since 10 September is to send the National Rural Advisory Council on a two-day tour to see whether Bourke and Brewarrina are, in fact, in drought. Our expensive and detailed report confirms they are. They stomped around Bourke and Brewarrina conducting interviews with the drought-weary farmers.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Vaucluse to order. I call the honourable member for Oxley to order.
Mr CARR: Those bureaucrats in Canberra working for National Party Ministers still need convincing that we are in drought! Some of the farmers that they would have spoken to have had to slaughter up to 75 per 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5951 cent of their livestock. It is time the Federal Government put some real money into this. By contrast, New South Wales has had more than 30 drought assistance measures since 18 April. I spoke to a farmer up at Hillston, who said, "That subsidy on the transport costs in the movement of fodder made the difference. It put our bank balance back into positive account."
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Coffs Harbour to order. I call the honourable member for Barwon to order. I call the honourable member for Barwon to order for the second time.
Mr CARR: I do not want to remind the Opposition that when it was in government it ended cash subsidies; it wrote them out. Farmers in 60 per cent of the State are eligible for this assistance and others more recently drought declared will become eligible after six months, half the Commonwealth's waiting time.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Lachlan to order for the second time.
Mr CARR: We have been out in the regions talking to farmers about these issues. On my visits I have also seen rural businesses such as contract harvesters, spray rig operators, planters and shearers doing it tough. Many of these were the first to feel the full effect of the rural downturn. Some had little or no income for a year or more, so they need support. Six additional new teams from NSW Agriculture are now working across the State on putting together exceptional circumstance applications covering parts or all of 19 rural lands protection board districts. The applications cover 39 per cent of the State and they should be delivered to Canberra by mid November. I will take them there myself.
If successful, around 9,200 farming families in the Western Division of New South Wales and other parts of the State can start receiving welfare payments and interest relief. More needs to be done. Today I have written to the Prime Minister requesting that the Commonwealth make available the following assistance: cash grants for replanting crops, interest subsidies for farmers, income support for families, grants for small and medium-sized businesses, and easier access to farm management deposits for farmers. The last point is very important because we are talking about giving farmers access to their own money, money that under this scheme—a good scheme, a Commonwealth scheme—they have wisely put aside for times like these. Australian farmers currently have a total of $2 billion in these—
Mr Armstrong: $2.3 billion.
Mr CARR: I am indebted to this Titan of our times, this pillar of what was known as the Fahey- Armstrong Government in the history books. Fondly do I recall our bid to get those Games for Sydney and coming back with them. We have $2.3 billion in farm management deposits into which 12,000 farmers from our State have deposited more than $540 million, which is around $46,000 per farmer. It is an excellent insurance policy against a drought. As our colleague the Queensland Minister for Primary Industries and Rural Communities rightly pointed out yesterday, farm management deposits must be maintained for at least—
[Interruption]
I do not play Trivial Pursuit. Ask me a question about United States Vice-Presidents. Farm management deposits must be maintained for at least a year to gain the taxation benefits of this scheme, a good scheme. In a drought this severe that is too long. We want the Federal Government to deliver greater flexibility. Specifically, I propose three options: one, allowing farmers to withdraw funds within 12 months of their deposited date while still retaining the tax advantages of the farm deposit scheme; two, lifting the maximum deposit limit above the current $300,000; and, three, increasing the off-farm income limit beyond $50,000. I can also advise the House that I have written to the chief executives of the major banks asking them to support farmers, as well as contractors and businesses in rural New South Wales, through the drought and into eventual recovery. Next week I will meet with bank chief executive officers, New South Wales Farmers and charities to assess the impact of the deteriorating drought. Australia has the world's most efficient and best farmers. In these worst of times, they need our support and solidarity. Let us ensure they have it.
ENNGONIA SEPTIC TANK SYSTEMS
Mr SLACK-SMITH: My question is to the Minister for Public Works and Services. Why has his Government allowed the septic tank systems in the township of Enngonia to overflow for many months, creating serious health hazards to local residents who feel that their plight has been totally ignored by his Government?
Mr IEMMA: I will seek details on that project. 5952 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
TEACHERS SCHOLARSHIPS
Mr ASHTON: My question is to the Premier. What is the latest information on scholarships for New South Wales teachers to improve their skills overseas?
Mr CARR: In November 1999 I was immensely honoured to be selected as the Fulbright Fiftieth Anniversary Distinguished Fellow Award. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a $50,000 cheque accompanied it. This presented a challenge. How could I act in a way that would be true to the ideals, or most of the ideals, of J. William Fulbright? He was an arch segregationist! The answer was to divide the money between five scholarships for New South Wales history teachers. The scholarships would allow them to take time out of the classroom, travel to the United States, collect teaching material, see the sites and places that their students read about in books, then return, ready to pass on their enthusiasm for Australian and American history to their students. Isn't that heartwarming! It is also true.
My intent was that the New South Wales scholarships would be for five teachers for one year. Since those five teachers travelled to the US and returned to tell their inspiring stories, this idea, like many good ideas, has grown and benefited more people. Let me tell you how. Thanks to the great generosity of people like Frank Lowy of Westfield, Berel and Agnes Ginges, Nicholas Moore from Macquarie Bank, Jill Ker Conway and David Higgins from Lend Lease, and Terry Davis, the head of Coca-Cola Amatil, we now have equivalent scholarships for teachers of English literature, science, history, personal development, health and physical education. We have one good idea; big companies or a benefactor like the idea, so that good idea multiples.
Now the story gets even better. I released a book that got some very good reviews, and it sold very well. It is coming out in another edition, but more of that in a moment. I will put the first $10,000 from the sale into a fund for a teacher in special education. The specialist committee interviewed more than 50 teachers from all over the State who applied for this fellowship. The outcome is that the committee selected a teacher of kids with special needs. The teacher is Amanda Morton from Athelstane Public School in Arncliffe. She is the first winner of my special education scholarship. I had the pleasure of meeting some of her students.
Amanda Morton is a young, motivated teacher with a passion for teaching kids with disabilities. Do you know where she is now? She is in Brooklyn, New York, moving on to Union City, New Jersey, then two schools in Pennsylvania to learn how schools there teach youngsters with disabilities. The scholarship is funded by the sale of Thoughtlines and all the copies honourable members bought. Those opposite attack Thoughtlines but they are a pretty lonely crowd. This is what Henry Kissinger said—
[Interruption]
I do not want to quote it because it will embarrass me. His commendation of the book will appear on the cover of the new edition. Let me tell you what he said. If I can prevail on the patience of the House I will quote what Henry Kissinger said:
I am delighted by Thoughtlines. It is a splendid work, discerning, engaging and candid.
This is from Gore Vidal:
I'd forgot so much Marcus Aurelius and it was nice to see him ordered, not anthologised, for the wisdom bits.
Don't those opposite understand that this embarrasses me acutely? That great Australian novelist Colleen McCullough, and this will appear on the new edition, said:
I thoroughly enjoyed Thoughtlines. How heartwarming it is to think that there is an occasional senior politician with not only a mind, a soul and a conscience, but also a splendid literacy. You write so well, not an ounce of fat, yet a lovely sense of metaphor and some memorable phrases.
I did not want to quote that but people write these things.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the second time.
Mr CARR: The interesting thing about the proliferation of these scholarships, which arose from one original good idea, is the very high number that are awarded to teachers from rural New South Wales.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Baulkham Hills to order. 24 October 2002 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 5953
Mr CARR: I was honoured, with Senator Fulbright's widow, Harriet, to present eight English literature scholarships to teachers of English from rural areas such as Broken Hill, Maitland, Casino and Tumut. Through this fellowship scheme funded by Lend Lease, these English teachers in country schools will travel overseas to study how English is taught in other countries. With the assistance of the British Council the teachers from these towns, who perhaps would otherwise not have the opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom, will visit Stratford and meet directors—
[Interruption]
The shadow Minister for Police interjects. One month after the Opposition brings out a sentencing policy, a news poll shows that on law and order 18 per cent of respondents believe the Leader of the Opposition would deliver good policies, and 48 per cent nominate Mr Carr. A great bit of policy work there!
Mr Tink: Point of order: The Premier should tell us about his successful law and order campaign in Cunningham. What about the big swing in Cunningham?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.
Mr Tink: He posed at the police station with Simon Crean. They were all lined up behind the police station, then a big swing, out the door, down the toilet. Goodbye!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I place the honourable member for Epping on three calls to order.
Mr CARR: That is precisely why for the last six weeks they have pulled him off the evening news. That is why we have not heard of him. That is why he has vanished. That is why he is the mad Victorian relative locked away in the east wing. We do not hear the distinctive tones of the honourable member for Epping anymore. Perhaps we can get him a bit more exposure and those figures on law and order would shift more in the Government's favour. I conclude with a quote from Frank Lowy of Westfield, who sponsors the history scholarships. After listening to the debriefings from the history teachers who have experienced these wonderful tours abroad as recipients of these schemes, Frank Lowy said:
Send one teacher overseas and that teacher returns inspired and enthusiastic. The ripples of the new experience spreads through many classes and into the school.
Mr Anderson: They will not come back.
Mr CARR: They are all coming back with enthusiasm for their jobs in the school system. That is precisely the point. As a result of their experiences, they come back and teach with all the more enthusiasm. Further, Frank Lowy said:
Do this with many teachers and tens of thousands of schoolchildren benefit.
Advertisements for all New South Wales teachers scholarships, which are now proliferating with the support of these private benefactors, will appear in the metropolitan newspapers this weekend. Given the number of these awards, the Department of Education and Training has recently established a Premier's Scholarship Secretariat to work on administering them. To get further information on each award, teachers in all these subject areas can make a single call or send an email to the secretariat. Education is very important because a bit of it would stop the other side making egregious errors. For example, as to the lead question today from the Leader of the Opposition, the NSW Police announced yesterday the timetable for the Engadine inquiry. The NSW Police announced it in a press release yesterday and gave the date.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the third time.
Mr CARR: I have the press release dated Wednesday 23 October. The staff of the Leader of the Opposition did not know about it?
Mr Brogden: Point of order: I take my point of order on relevance. Rather than the Premier talking about reviews of his book, he should talk about whether Sydney Water is or is not responsible. Why will the Premier not tell the people of Engadine whether Sydney Water is or is not responsible?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved. 5954 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 24 October 2002
Mr BROGDEN: You talk about your book. You are a sad joke.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.
Mr CARR: Education is very important because with a bit of it the Leader of the Opposition would not have made yet another mistake at question time, like all the question times this session. He has made another mistake, another blunder.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order.
Mr CARR: The press release issued yesterday announced the date for the completion of the policy inquiry. A bit of education would also be very important for the Leader of the National Party who said, "Since it was established in 1987, the Workers Compensation Scheme has not appeared in the balance sheet of the State Government." When the Leader of the National Party was finance Minister there was no difference.
NURSES RECRUITMENT
Mrs SKINNER: My question is to the Premier. Given that the Premier claimed in June to have recruited an extra 500 nurses through the Reconnect project, why are 1,932 vacancies now being advertised compared to 1,637 back in April?
Mr CARR: I will be pleased to consult my colleague the Minister for Health and provide an answer.
Mrs SKINNER: I ask a supplementary question. Do these figures confirm the evidence given to the Industrial Relations Commission that nurses are leaving our hospitals faster than they can be recruited? The Premier made the claim; he should answer the question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a supplementary question.
TWEED EMPLOYMENT AND INVESTMENT
Mr NEWELL: My question without notice is to the Minister for Regional Development. What is the latest information on jobs and investment in the Tweed?
Mr WOODS: The State Government is committed to working towards creating new jobs in country New South Wales, which is in contrast to the Opposition which is interested in destroying jobs in country New South Wales. The Government is continually looking for opportunities to help boost employment in regional New south Wales. One such opportunity is on the far North Coast where the State Government is helping to secure the future of horticulture. I inform the House that the Government has approved funding for a full-scale investment brief for the potential development of a contract pack house to service fruit and vegetable growers in the Tweed Valley.
Producers of agricultural products in the Tweed Valley spend almost $40 million on production activities each year, yield only $28 million in gross regional output, have $21 million in household income, and create more than 1,100 direct and flow-on full-time jobs. Currently, the Tweed Valley comprises small growers who have traditionally used central markets in the State capitals to sell their products. The time is right to move the pack-house concept forward and develop a financial analysis of the proposal—a pack-house with an integrated grading, packing, storage and marketing facility that will have the flexibility to handle the range of fruit and vegetables; a convenient location for supplies, transport and tourism; and a supplier identification and trace-back system. The pack-house concept is a final part of the Government's country centres growth strategy for the Tweed region.
I am advised the pack-house investment brief will be approved by a local horticultural consortium made up of the Banana Growers Federation, the New South Wales Avocado Growers Association, the Australian Passionfruit Industry Association, the Tweed Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, the Tweed Banana Growers Association, the Northern Rivers Area Consultative Committee, the Northern Rivers Regional Development Board and the Northern Rivers Agricultural Development Association. Credit for this business initiative should be shared by the farmers of the Tweed region, the Government's local regional agencies, the New South Wales Department of State and Regional Development and, of course, the local member, who is a tireless worker for the agricultural producers in his electorate.
Questions without notice concluded.
The House adjourned at 5.22 p.m. ______