NOTICES OF MOTION Wednesday. 25 March 1998 ASSEMBLY 631 Wednesday, 25 March 1998 (a) that community donations purchased the land on which the hospital is built; The SPEAKER (Hon. S. J. Plowman) took the chair at (b) the maternity ward was financed by a bequest from a 10.03 a.m. and read the prayer. local resident, Mr Doug Rowe; and The SPEAKER - Order! Before proceeding with (c) a large proportion of beds and equipment in the normal business, I wish to advise the house that last hospital were paid for by charitable donations from the night the Chair erred in relation to the incorporation of senior hospital auxiliary, the junior hospital auxiliary, documents by the honourable member for Ripon. The the kiosk auxiliary, and other organisations. Chair should always ask whether leave is given for the The SPEAKER - Order! The honourable member incorporation. The Chair did not do so last night. I has moved a motion which the Chair would like to apologise to the honourable member for Footscray, examine. I am not sure whether it should have been two who was in charge of opposition business. Any member motions or one. It may have to be split into two separate may say, 'Leave refused', and leave will then not be motions. granted. Further notices of motion given. While I am talking about this matter it is worth my referring to the system for the incorporation of documents. If a member wishes to incorporate PETITIONS documents, the documents must first be presented to the Chair for approval, technical advice must be sought The Clerk - I have received the following petitions from Hansard as to whether the incorporation is for presentation to Parliament: practicable and then the documents must be made available to the person in the Chair during the debate. Essendon and District Memorial Hospital It is also appropriate if a member of the government is To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly in Parliament assembled: proposing an incorporation for him or her to give the documents to the opposition as a matter of courtesy and The humble petition of the undersigned citizens of the state of vice versa between opposition and government. The Victoria sheweth distress and concern at the state opposite party is more likely to grant leave if it has had government's proposal to close Essendon hospital and remove public health facilities from the area. a chance to look at the documents. I reiterate that leave should have been sought but was not. I apologise to the Your petitioners therefore pray that the government house. immediately halt negotiations related to the sale of the Essendon and District Memorial Hospital until a consultation process is instituted with the residents of the Essendon community and hospital users to keep public health facilities NOTICES OF MOTION in the Essendon area. The SPEAKER - Order! Are there notices of And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. motion? By Mrs Maddigan (167 signatures) Notices of motion given. Bone marrow donor registry Essendon and District Memorial Hospital To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly in Parliament assembled: Mrs MADDIGAN (Essendon)- I desire to give notice that on the next day of sitting I will move: The humble petition of the undersigned citizens of the rural community of Gippsland sheweth that the bone marrow That- donor registry is a valuable lifesaving necessity which is desperately needed for victims suffering from leukaemia and I. the state government be condemned for its decision to close other cancer-related diseases. Within our own community we the Essendon hospital, thus depriving the residents of have several leukaemia sufferers who have been battling this Essendon and the north-west area ofYictoria of a valuable disease for many years and are desperately waiting for public health service; compatible bone marrow donors which could save their lives. Bone marrow compatible donors are extremely rare, which is 2. the state government be condemned for refusing to accept why we need to keep searching for more people willing to that the community of Essendon and the north-west region have blood tests. We are getting the people, but the have a financial investment in the Essendon hospital in view government has deemed it necessary to cut funding and of the fact: staffing levels, making it extremely difficult to perform the tests. PAPER 632 ASSEMBLY Wednesday, 25 March 1998 We, the people of the community of Gippsland, ardently privately and the way it conducts its private business is petition for the reversal of this funding-staffing cut, that we not a matter for government. may continue to seek to save lives. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Although it is true that the government accepts and has responsibility for the operation of prisons in this state, it By Mr Andrighetto (1875 signatures) does not nor can it tell a private contractor what it should do in terms of management techniques to fulfil Laid on table. its obligations to the government. Ordered that petition presented by honourable member for Narracan be considered next day on motion of Therefore, the first ground is that this matter is not an ~r A.1IIDRIGHETTO (Narracan). appropriate one to be raised in the house because it is not a matter over which the government rightfully has control, as provided in standing order 26. PAPER It may be that the opposition will say. 'But we want to Laid on table by Clerk: talk about prisons in general', and in that case I would remind the house that the member who has now raised Auditor-General - Special Repon No. 54 - ViclOria 's this urgency motion has already given his contribution Gaming Industry.· An insight into the role ofthe regulator­ Ordered to be printed to the address-in-reply debate, and in that speech he has already covered in detail the matters concerning prisons in this state, how they ought to be operated and how he PORT PHILLIP PRISON: MANAGEMENT thinks they are failing. The honourable member has even called on the Governor to look into certain matters Mr HAERMEYER (Yan Yean)- I wish to move concerning prisons. the adjournment of the house for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public It cannot be both ways. Ifhe says this is simply a importance, namely, the arrival of 15 Group 4 general debate about prisons I point out that the matter correction services managers, supervisors and prison has already been put before this house in detail and it is officers from Britain in response to the crisis at Port humbug to say that it should now be reinvented. If the Phillip Prison and the implications oftheir arrival for honourable member says this is an urgent motion corrections policy and privatisation in Victoria. because under the contract it has been decided to bring 15 Group 4 correction services managers into Victoria, Required number of members rose indicating approval of that is not a matter of this government's administration; motion being put. it is a matter ofa private operator's mechanisms for Mr HAERMEYER (Yan Yean)- I move: achieving the management outcomes it must achieve. Its act in doing so is therefore not a matter of That the house do now adjourn. government administration, and therefore the motion should be ruled out of order. Dr Dean - On a point of order, Mr Speaker, according to its wording, the urgency motion concerns Mr Batchelor- On the point of order, Mr Speaker, the arrival of 15 Group 4 correction services managers, the honourable member raised two matters in his point supervisors and prison officers from Britain in relation of order. Firstly he argued in one direction and then to the Port Phillip Prison arrangements and the way in appealed to you by saying that if that argument fails, as which Group 4 conducts its management. it should, he would come at it from the completely opposite direction. He argued, 'If I lose the first There are two grounds upon which this is not a matter argument I should succeed on the second argument' . that is proper to be debated in the house. The first is that He has contradicted himself quintessentially in the it is not a matter for the administration of this argument he put before you. government. I shall deal with the second point first. The rules for Honourable members interjecting. proceeding with an urgency motion require it to be specific. The honourable member argued that this Dr Dean - The loudness with which the opposition motion was an attempt, using words of a specific laughs has no bearing on the merits of the argument I nature, to have a generalised debate. That is clearly not am putting, which is simply this: the contractual the case. This is a specifically worded motion that falls arrangements of a private organisation that is operating PORT PHILLIP PRISON: MANAGEMENT Wednesday. 25 March 1998 ASSEMBLY 633 within the requirements, and the opposition asks you, administrative responsibility, for this area in the state of Sir, to reject the second argument. Victoria whether there is a contract or not. In supporting the honourable member's second In his second point the honourable member for Berwick argument he makes the ludicrous proposition that referred to the address-in-reply debate and the fact that because a member of Parliament has spoken in the the honourable member for Yan Yean had already address-in-reply debate he should not be able to move spoken in general about prisons and his concerns about an urgency motion.