Mr Speaker (The Hon. John Henry Murray) took the chair at 2.15 p.m.

Mr Speaker offered the Prayer.

Mr SPEAKER: I draw to the attention of honourable members children from Glenhaven Public School and Muswellbrook South Public School. I welcome them to the House and assure them that members will be on their best behaviour today.

Assent to the following bills reported:

Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill
Crimes Legislation Amendment (Procedure) Bill

Mr CARR: During the absence of the Minister for the Olympics on Tuesday, 14 October, and Wednesday, 15 October, the Minister for Roads, Minister for Public Works and Services, Minister for Ports, Assistant Minister for Energy, and Assistant Minister for State and Regional Development will answer questions on his behalf.

[Notices of Motions]

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Newcastle to order.

Mr SPEAKER: I lay upon the table a copy of the Register of Disclosures by Members of the Legislative Assembly being, first, primary returns as at 30 June 1997 and, second, ordinary returns as at 30 June 1997.

Ordered to be printed.

The Clerk announced receipt of the report entitled "Key Issues Arising from the Fourth General Meeting with the NSW Ombudsman", dated October 1997.

Petitions praying that the office of Governor of New South Wales not be downgraded, and that the role, duties and future of the office be determined by a referendum, received from Mr Blackmore, Mr Brogden, Mr Collins, Mr Debnam, Mr Downy, Ms Ficarra, Mr Glachan, Mr Hartcher, Mr Hazzard, Mr Humpherson, Dr Kernohan, Mr Kerr, Mr MacCarthy, Mr Merton, Mr O’Doherty, Mr O’Farrell, Mr Phillips, Mr Photios, Mr Richardson, Mr Rozzoli, Mr Schipp, Mr Schultz, Ms Seaton, Mrs Skinner, Mr Smith and Mr Tink.

Petition praying that the heroin addicts program in Israel be evaluated with a view to establishing a similar program in all States of Australia, received from Mrs Chikarovski.

Petition praying that the maternity ward and birthing centre at Camden District Hospital be retained, and that the hospital be retained as a general hospital, received from Dr Kernohan.

Petition praying that Ryde Hospital and its services be retained, received from Mr Tink.

Petition praying that additional police be located at Albion Park police station, received from Mr Harrison.

Petition praying that, in line with the Inspector General’s report of 1993, permanent dedicated police officers be retained at police and community youth clubs, received from Mr Beck.

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Petition praying for extra funding for capital works at Gloucester Public School, received from Mr J. H. Turner.

Petition praying that the draft plan of management for Cudgen Nature Reserve be varied to ensure the continued use of Cudgen Lake and North Cabarita Beach for existing recreational purposes, the improvement of the tidal flow into Cudgen lake, and the removal of recent reed growth from Cudgen Lake; or, that Cudgen Lake and the portion of North Cabarita Beach east of the Coast Road that is sandmined be removed from Cudgen Nature Reserve, received from Mr Beck.

Mr Gibson, as Chairman, tabled the report entitled "Report of the 2nd Meeting of Australasian Parliamentary Road Safety Committees and Ministerial Nominees", dated September 1997.

Ordered to be printed.

Mr Gaudry, as Chairman, tabled the report entitled "First General Meeting with the Police Integrity Commissioner".

Ordered to be printed.

Mr COLLINS: My question is directed to the Minister for Transport, and Minister for Tourism. Do State Rail figures for the region from Parramatta to Broken Hill show that major rail crime has quadrupled -

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will remain silent.

Mr COLLINS: Mr Speaker, he did not answer any questions in the first two weeks; it is time we gave somebody else a turn, someone who might answer.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will restate the question.

Mr COLLINS: Do State Rail figures for the region from Parramatta to Broken Hill show that major rail crime has quadrupled under the Carr Government, with more than 2,100 offences against SRA property anticipated this year compared with just over 600 in 1994?

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Broken Hill to order.

Mr COLLINS: Given a 34 per cent blow-out in the number of offences in the first six months of this year alone, how does the Minister explain why rail crime is out of control under his Government?

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Fairfield to order. The Chair will not tolerate the level of interjection that has occurred today in the Chamber.

Mr LANGTON: A short time ago the honourable member for Ermington quoted some figures that suggested that assaults were occurring on trains every 20 minutes.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Baulkham Hills to order.

Mr LANGTON: Honourable members will remember that outrageous claim by the honourable member for Ermington. This is the same person who told the Daily Telegraph just a few weeks ago, "I do sometimes beat up stories." The simple fact is that some 95 per cent of incidents on trains do not involve assaults on persons but, rather, involve incidents such as spraying graffiti, swearing in public, smoking on trains and placing feet on seats.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for The Hills to order. I call the honourable member for Ermington to order.

Mr LANGTON: The figures clearly show that on public transport in 1995-96 offences of serious crime against the person fell by 5.2 per cent. It should be noted that a new reporting system is now in place. The Minister for Police and I are working carefully to ensure that every incident that happens on public transport is recorded on the computer
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operated policing system - unlike what happened when the coalition was in government.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Port Jackson to order.

Mr LANGTON: We now have much more accurate figures than those provided by the former Government, which used to hide them. It never collected the figures and they were never recorded. At least this Government is being honest about the matter. Not only that, but the Government releases the figures when the Opposition asks for them. Even when they are given the figures, members opposite are happy to misquote them. In answer to the specific question from the Leader of the Opposition in relation to trains to Broken Hill, this Government put the trains back to Broken Hill.

Mr RUMBLE: My question without notice is directed to the Premier. What has been the effect in New South Wales generally of the Howard Government’s reforms of aged care?

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Baulkham Hills to order for the second time.

Mr CARR: The students of Muswellbrook and Glenhaven must be amused to come to a parliamentary Chamber in which the Leader of the Government is attacked for having an interest in Australian history. No wonder the member opposite decided this was not the time to take on the deputy leadership of his party, even though the Liberal Party is begging for a new deputy leader. The Howard Government’s cruel Aged Care Act has been in place for just two weeks, and already the consequences are very disturbing. Some nursing homes are trying to force the older people in our community - the real champions of Australia’s twentieth century history, the people who went to war and entered the work force in the Depression - to pay accommodation bonds of up to $200,000.

The New South Wales Seniors Information Service - something that this Government set up - has been deluged with calls from panic-stricken seniors. The number of calls to this line have rocketed from 200 a month to about 200 a day. The calls are from people who are angry and frightened, many of them in tears, because of what the Howard Government is doing to them. A woman in her eighties from the Blue Mountains rang. She lives alone in her own home. She was crying and confused about having to sell it. She told the information service that she had codeine in her house and knew how to overdose. Another woman was so distraught about having to rely on her daughter for financial support that she told her family she would rather commit suicide than be a burden on them.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Londonderry to order.

Mr CARR: A woman in her seventies rang the information service anxious that she would be forced to sell her house to pay a bond, and that her son would be forced out of the house because he did not fit the Commonwealth’s exemption rules. She told the service she would rather commit suicide than force her son to leave the family home. A 78-year-old man in a nursing home was told he would have to pay a bond, but he has no home of his own to sell. Mrs Lillian Keen from Ryde is an 80-year-old self-funded retiree who is considering moving out of her hostel and back home, away from the professional care she needs. She says this will be cheaper and she will not have to sell off the family home to pay an accommodation bond. What a disgraceful situation! Surely we can have the support of members opposite - at least those who are not chortling, who are not gleeful at these stories - in a united approach to the Commonwealth Government to get these inhumane rules reconsidered. These rules turn on its head our society’s moral obligation to care for the elderly and infirm. To John Howard a house is not a home; it is just an asset - a de facto death duty. To say that the new rules on nursing homes and hostels are confusing -

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Vaucluse to order.

Mr CARR: What a champion for the battlers the honourable member for Vaucluse is. Some of those millionaires in harbour-front properties who are paying land tax positively embrace the experience because for the first time they have got to pay.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Northcott to order.

Mr CARR: It is giving them the experience of being like other Australians for the first and only time. There they are, protected, sandbagged by family trusts and special arrangements, and now they have got a chance to do what the rest of us do - pay our way. Mr Howard said the elderly could consider renting out their homes so that they could
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pay the bond in instalments. A person would need $400 a week rent from the house to pay a $100,000 accommodation bond. That is not an average rent for a modest suburban cottage. This is great fun to the honourable member for Vaucluse; he has not stopped chortling.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Vaucluse will remain silent.

Mr CARR: If people take up the offer to pay the bond by instalments they face an interest charge of up to 8 per cent. The Prime Minister originally said accommodation bonds would be about $26,000, yet some nursing homes are suggesting $200,000 is closer to the mark. Older people now face life under a two-tiered nursing home system, with comfort and security guaranteed only for the wealthy. As a result, the States once again will bear an increased financial burden. The health system will be strained as people remain in hospital waiting for a nursing home place. Home and community care services will be stretched to the limit as people remain in their homes well past the days when they can properly care for themselves.

What a Government we have in Canberra: $800 million has been cut from the child-care budget; legal aid has been slashed; funding for universities has been cut; and the dole for teenagers has been cut, forcing many of them back into the school system and increasing costs to the States. Now $500 million has been cut from the nursing home and hostel industry and an accommodation bond has been imposed that is unjust, unfair and plain cruel to older Australians.

Mr PHOTIOS: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Transport, and Minister for Tourism. Do State Rail figures show robberies on our trains in the region from Parramatta to Baulkham Hills -

[Interruption]

Mr PHOTIOS: Do State Rail figures show that robberies on our trains in the region from Parramatta to Broken Hill have doubled in two years, that assaults have trebled, that stealing has increased sevenfold and that sexual offences have increased by 2,000 per cent? Given this outbreak of crime on trains, why has the Minister cut security and downgraded transit police?

Mr LANGTON: It is quite true that there was not much crime on the train to Broken Hill: the Opposition took the train away. There was no train to Broken Hill, but this Government put it back. Not only that, this Government has taken numerous steps to improve security and safety on public transport and has improved the reporting system. Every member of this House would be aware of what the Government has achieved with its education program, employing private security guards, increasing the number of transit police, implementing the safe stations program and installing closed-circuit television on more than 100 stations.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the National Party to order.

Mr LANGTON: Most important, the Government is keeping accurate information about what is happening on public transport so that, unlike the former Government, this Government can go about combating crime wherever it may occur.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Ermington to order for the second time.

Ms HALL: My question without notice is directed to the Deputy Premier, Minister for Health, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. What impact are the Howard Government’s changes to aged care having on the health system in New South Wales?

Dr REFSHAUGE: It has been a traumatic two weeks for many of the frail and elderly in our community since the Federal Government made changes to aged care. Those uncaring changes have left older people confused and uncertain about their future. It is a cruel blow. The Federal Government has failed to realise that the tentacles of its ill-conceived Aged Care Act are reaching out into other areas. There can be no doubt that the Howard Government’s heartless policies in aged care are already having an impact on the health system. The effects are already being seen in our public hospitals. With the uncertainty surrounding these changes and the imposition of exorbitant up-front fees, elderly patients will want to stay in hospital for as long as possible to delay paying the new accommodation bonds.

Mrs Skinner: They will be lucky to get into them in the first place.

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Dr REFSHAUGE: The honourable member for North Shore would do better to look after high school children on their muck-up day. She might have some influence on kids in the private school system. She is their local member; maybe she can look after them, get them on the straight and narrow. The latest figures show that across Sydney, including the Illawarra and the Hunter, 322 elderly people are waiting in hospital for nursing home placement. The Federal Government’s changes are blocking people coming into nursing homes and hostels and putting increased pressure on acute care beds. At the same time older people are not receiving the most appropriate care.

There are also other effects. Aged-care assessment teams are being placed under great pressure. The geriatricians, nurses, social workers and other staff who make up those teams are primarily employed through Commonwealth funding. The State supports this program through the provision of infrastructure. Aged-care assessment teams determine whether elderly people need hostel or nursing home care or can continue living in the community with the provision of support services. Yet the Howard Government has cut funds to that program, resulting in the cessation of a pilot program in dementia care. The Howard Government is asking older folk to sell the family home and to pay up-front fees of up to $200,000 to go into a nursing home. As a consequence more than 300 people are choosing to stay in hospital rather than seeking appropriate care in nursing homes, and that is not fair.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Coffs Harbour to order.

Dr REFSHAUGE: Anecdotal evidence has shown that some nursing home proprietors are trying to pressure aged-care assessment teams to give priority to assessing the more wealthy elderly patients, to give the wealthy the nod to go into nursing homes, keeping poorer people out. This would allow nursing home proprietors to receive the up-front fee. So much for equity under the Howard Government. Clearly, the coalition’s definition of fairness is a two-tiered system. When John Howard talks about looking after the family, he does not mean grandma and grandpa. It is a case of making grandma and grandpa pay, getting rid of the family home, keeping them inappropriately in a hospital, thereby missing out on aged care.

This results in one level of care for the well off and another for the disadvantaged. No wonder the honourable member for Vaucluse is on the phone; he is looking after his elderly, rich constituents. Some people are being required to pay an up-front fee of $200,000. The Howard Government has cut funding for public hospitals and for the public health system. It was a cut last year of $34 million to our public hospitals, with another $34 million this year. There are cuts to special purpose programs, such as AIDS and women’s health services - including the closure of the family planning clinic at Parramatta - and the $34 million cut from the Commonwealth dental program.

The Howard Government is directly targeting health care services for those who cannot afford them. Older people have been targeted in particular with cuts to aged care and to the dental program. Because of the Federal Government’s cuts, approximately 272,000 fewer people across New South Wales will receive dental care. Some 230,000 of the 272,000 are pensioners and health care card holders. Funding levels to this extremely vulnerable group have been cut by 47 per cent because John Howard removed his contribution, yet the Opposition says not a word.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for North Shore to order. I call the honourable member for Coffs Harbour to order for the second time.

Dr REFSHAUGE: Members of the National Party are aware of that because some 100 dentists either are having to sell their practices or are unable to provide services.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Barwon to order.

Dr REFSHAUGE: The National Party and Labor Party know how much this is hurting people in the bush but the Liberal Party has walked away from them again. When dental programs are cut for elderly people, oral disease increases and they have difficulties with self-esteem and nutrition. This Government increased its contribution to the dental health program but the Federal Government has cut that program.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for North Shore to order for the second time.

Dr REFSHAUGE: All we hear from the Opposition is, "Good on you, John Howard." It is not "Good on you, John Howard" when one is looking for a nursing home, a hostel or dental care for the elderly. This Government is prepared to stand up for the elderly in this State and take on John Howard, but the Opposition does not have the guts to do the same.

Page 688

Mr ARMSTRONG: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Public Works and Services, representing the Minister for the Olympics. Will he explain the traffic chaos that occurred at the State Sports Centre last week during a children’s holiday concert? Hundreds of parents complained about hour-long parking queues and a lack of traffic direction. How will the traffic systems handle next year’s Royal Easter Show and the 2000 Olympic Games when they cannot even cope with a Wiggles concert?

Mr SCULLY: The Leader of the National Party did not get an invitation to the Wiggles concert, but I am sure he has the videos at home. The Leader of the National Party is a board member of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. Why did he give the Minister for the Olympics a glowing report of nine out of 10 if he thinks his transport preparations are not up to standard? The Minister was given nine out of 10 because he is doing the right thing in relation to transport. The Opposition did not establish the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority, the Government did. The Minister for the Olympics and the Premier went to Atlanta, saw the transport problems there, came back to Sydney and had a discussion with the Minister for Transport, and Minister for Tourism and me.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Northcott to order for the second time.

Mr SCULLY: The Olympic Roads and Transport Authority was established to manage transport issues. The Leader of the National Party knows more about this issue than he is letting on.

Mr SPEAKER: The Leader of the National Party asked the question and will remain silent while the Minister answers.

Mr SCULLY: The movement of people to the Olympics site at Homebush is important. The Government is doing everything it is required to do to ensure a successful outcome. Members would be aware that a new rail link to Homebush Bay will deliver up to 50,000 people per hour to Sydney Olympic Park. People who live in the Penrith and Blacktown areas will be transported in shuttle buses from nearby railway stations to the venue. Rail will be supported by a regional bus system that will operate from areas not well served by rail. The bus system will be capable of delivering up to 40,000 people per hour to Sydney Olympic Park. Spectators will be able to use strategically placed parking areas and then catch a shuttle bus to the venue. No public parking will be available at the venue.

[Interruption]

I am sure that the Leader of the National Party knows this; I do not know why he asked the question. I assume that he does not give reports at shadow cabinet meetings, so I will tell his colleagues what the Government is doing in relation to Olympic transport - and they should listen. No public parking will be available at or near Olympic venues. Parking in residential streets close to Olympic venues will be strictly controlled.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the National Party to order.

Mr SCULLY: Public transport services, together with strict control of parking, will reduce demand for travel by private vehicles. A strong campaign will be mounted to tell people how to use public transport to get to the Games.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the National Party to order for the second time.

Mr SCULLY: The campaign will try to enlist the co-operation and goodwill of Sydneysiders during the Games. During the Atlanta Games traffic congestion was not a major issue, but there was concern about buses that got lost or did not turn up, and the lack of interagency co-ordination.

Mr Photios: On a point of order. The question related primarily to the hour-long car queues at the holiday concert, and the Minister is reading a briefing note on Olympic transport arrangements.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

Mr SCULLY: I was asked to give an exposition of what the Government is doing to ensure that transport works well for the Olympics, and this is it. ORTA has been established to ensure that the problems that occurred in Atlanta do not occur in Sydney. The Olympics will be held during the school holidays so many people will be on holidays, and an active travel demand strategy will help people to modify their travel behaviour to better suit the Games transport needs. These actions will contribute to lower than usual traffic demand. ORTA will ensure that every Olympic bus and car driver is highly trained on the routes between venues. If an incident occurs on any of the preferred
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Olympic routes, preplanned and tested contingency plans will be implemented. The plans will co-ordinate all the agencies necessary to resolve such an incident. The Government, through ORTA, is aiming to ensure that visitors and Sydneysiders remember the Games and that Sydney has a wonderful experience during the Games. The Leader of the National Party, as a member of the SOCOG board, should tell his colleagues what the Government is successfully doing for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Mr SULLIVAN: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Education and Training. What action has been taken as a result of muck-up day activities by year 12 students in the Mosman and Neutral Bay areas last night?

Mr AQUILINA: This morning I was informed that last night approximately 80 students from a lower north shore non-government school were allegedly involved in a range of irresponsible activities associated with their muck-up day, including damage to property and theft. I am appalled by the late-night rampage of this unruly group of students. Let me make this clear: there is no place for such illegal activity by students.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Gosford to order.

Mr AQUILINA: All students in government and non-government schools should be fully aware that schools are not havens from the law. Students do not have a licence to commit crimes. All students who commit a crime will be liable to the penalties laid down by the law. As a precaution against irresponsible activities on muck-up day, the Director-General of the Department of School Education issued a memorandum to all government schools on 15 August. The memorandum required all principals to make clear that acts of violence or vandalism would not be tolerated and that students would not be exempt from the law. In addition - continuing an initiative commenced by the Government last year - last term we issued an end- of-year celebrations package to each school and help cards to each student. The honourable member for Ku-ring-gai is gesticulating on the other side of the Chamber. If he listened, perhaps he would be able to get something right occasionally. He issued a press release today dated 7 October - he is a week behind the times.

Mr O’Doherty: On a point of order.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai wishes to respond to what the Minister has said, he can do so at the end of question time.

Mr AQUILINA: The honourable member’s press release is dated 7 October - he does not know what day it is, let alone what is going on in schools. The kit contains ideas for school celebrations, including fundraising activities for charities; sample letters to students from the principal and year advisers; pamphlets on liquor laws; and information on Roads and Traffic Authority driver fatigue and anti-drink driving campaigns - all of which are worthwhile issues.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Davidson to order.

Mr AQUILINA: The help card contains telephone numbers for emergency services. Some examples of positive approaches to celebrations by schools include a charity drive, in which senior students are auctioned to work for juniors for a couple of hours, at Killarney Heights High School and Davidson High School.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Davidson to order for the second time.

Mr AQUILINA: An amount of $500 was raised by Mosman High School, and $1,000 was raised by Mackellar Girls High School for charities from concerts and mufti days. I compliment those schools and students on the responsible way in which they have carried out their end-of-school celebrations. I am aware that most non-government schools have similar programs for making their students and parental bodies fully aware of their responsibilities under the law. Government and non-government school principals frequently co-operate in joint publicity campaigns in local newspapers, to encourage responsible celebrations. I would be happy to make available to any non-government schools copies of the department’s material.

Mr WINDSOR: I address my question without notice to the Minister for Health. Are dental services the responsibility of the State Government - yes or no? Given the proposed cuts to dental services in the New England health region and the consequent blow-out in waiting times for
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dentures for pension card holders - the older people the Premier referred to - what does the Minister intend to do to rectify this predicament?

Dr REFSHAUGE: The Federal and State governments have dual responsibility for a large proportion of health care. The Federal Government has removed its contribution to dental services. It has effectively removed half of the total expenditure for public health services in this State. The State Government has not only maintained its contribution, it has regularly increased its contribution. It is likely that 100 dentists who work in the public sector will not be able to continue, and those who work in private practice in rural areas will have to walk away from their practices and from the service they have provided for country folk, particularly in the smaller country towns, because John Howard and Peter Costello have decided that the Federal Government will not fund the dental program.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Myall Lakes to order.

Dr REFSHAUGE: I would be delighted if the policy were changed. I and my colleagues, who are mostly Liberal and National Ministers in other States, are working together to have the policy changed. Only one Liberal Party and one National Party in this nation do not support this Government’s stand - the New South Wales coalition.

Mr TRIPODI: I address my question without notice to the Minister for Land and Water Conservation. What plans has the Government to reopen Luna Park?

Mr YEADON: It gives me great pleasure to inform the House today that the Premier and I have announced the next stage in the Government’s plan to rescue Luna Park. Honourable members would be aware that most of the Luna Park site has been closed to the public since February 1996, when its deteriorating financial position meant it could no longer operate. Other possible private sector operators were sought for the park. However, it became apparent that the limited use of the site contained in the current legislation deemed that it was not financially viable. Since that time several operations for the future use of Luna Park have been examined and extensive community consultation has taken place with residents of North Sydney, North Sydney Council, Friends of Luna Park and possible private sector operators.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Wollongong to order.

Mr YEADON: Four options were developed and placed on public display earlier in the year, and approximately 400 written submissions were received. As a result of comprehensive community consultation the Government has decided to introduce amendments to the Luna Park Site Act to allow for a wide range of activities to be developed on the site, which should increase the financial viability of the park. The decision will allow for the development of restaurants, exhibitions, conventions, private functions, markets and theatres. At the same time the Government’s plan will maintain the current heritage and entertainment value of the site.

Public access to the boardwalk and foreshore area will be preserved, and traditional rides will continue to be protected. However, noise considerations do not favour the reopening of the big dipper. Luna Park holds a special place in the hearts of all Sydneysiders and of the people of New South Wales and Australia. Today’s announcement seeks to ensure the financial viability of any new activity at Luna Park, while taking into account community concerns about the site. Within the next week my department will hold briefings for the community and other interested parties on the legislative amendments, which I will introduce tomorrow.

A management plan for the site will be released by the end of November and will be available for public comment before any final decisions are made. An expression of interest document will be available in December to attract private sector involvement, and a decision on the preferred tenderer is expected to be announced next year, and then Luna Park should hold its rightful place in the hearts of the people of Sydney and New South Wales.

Mr PHILLIPS: My question is directed to the Premier. Does a leaked Treasury document state that collapsing electricity dividends mean health and education spending can only be maintained by other budget cuts, going further into debt, or increasing taxes? Given the Premier’s overwhelming defeat on electricity privatisation and his promise to his party colleagues not to raise taxes or increase debt, what services will he cut?

Mr CARR: The great inquisitor! After all the debate on electricity at the Labor Party conference, I would expect such a question from a bloke who is doomed. According to the Sydney Morning Herald last week, a leading backbencher said of him that he was dead meat anyway, whether next week or next month. What has the Opposition done for State Parliament? First of all, the honourable member for
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Gosford launched a withering attack on me for promoting the study of Australian history. Second, the honourable member for Ermington confused Broken Hill with Baulkham Hills. I suppose it is all the same to him. After all, he rang the John Laws program a few months ago and said, "I am the only Liberal member for western Sydney." What a reflection on our old friend the honourable member for Camden! It is a sad sight to see a great party divided on the issue of electricity. On 27 September the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, for example, that the Liberal Party did not have a policy; that its policy on electricity rested on - wait for it! - public discussion and debate. Members of the Liberal Party have to wait for public discussion and debate before they can develop a policy!

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Leader of the National Party to order for the third time.

Mr CARR: On 6 October the Leader of the Opposition rang up Mike Carlton and said, "No-one would believe us if we said we were not going to sell the electricity."

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the second time.

Mr CARR: The Leader of the Opposition said, "If we said we were not going to privatise it, people would think we had taken leave of our senses. We would completely lack credibility."

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Ermington to order for the third time.

Mr CARR: The Leader of the Opposition said, as reported in the Newcastle Herald, "It is all dependent on a process of public debate and public discussion." Members of the Liberal Party have not yet got a policy.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Wakehurst to order.

Mr CARR: But there will be a bit of public debate and public discussion, generated from the Hogg report or from what we saw at the party conference. The Leader of the Opposition said, "No-one would believe us if we said we were not going to do it anyway." But then we get variations from the people who speak for the National Party. On 29 May the Leader of the National Party told The Land that privatisation was philosophically in line with his party’s thinking.

Mr Souris: Hear! Hear!

Mr CARR: The Deputy Leader of the National Party says, "Hear! Hear!" However, the Hon. D. J. Gay of the upper House said to Mike Carlton a few days ago that he was an agrarian socialist and that he opposed it.

Mr SPEAKER: I remind the honourable member for Ermington that he is on three calls to order.

Mr CARR: I think it is terribly sad that a once great party would surrender to these remorseless lines of division on a matter like electricity. But I suppose, in the words of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, it is a big decision -

Mr SPEAKER: I call the honourable member for Gosford to order for the second time.

Mr CARR: - and it rates a great deal of public debate and public discussion.

Mr PHILLIPS: I ask a supplementary question. Given the Premier’s recognition of a loss of income from electricity, how will he balance his rapidly deteriorating budget? Where will he get the money?

Mr CARR: With all the brilliance that we have demonstrated in our term in office to date.

Mr MARKHAM: Will the Minister for Corrective Services advise the House what measures the Department of Corrective Services is taking to fight corruption within the prison system?

Mr DEBUS: The honourable member has had a long-standing interest in the reform of the prison system. This morning the Independent Commission Against Corruption commenced hearings into the conduct of a former prison officer, Tosa Sua. Former officer Sua is accused of having over a period of about seven years become involved in the criminal underworld - the world of drugs and prostitution. Worse still, officer Sua stands accused of having brought his criminal activities inside the prison, using his position of authority to arrange assaults upon inmates and other criminal acts. At this point it remains to be shown to what extent officer Sua has involved or compromised his colleagues and fellow officers. What is certain is that this former officer has endangered inmates and officers and has potentially tainted the reputation of the thousands of hardworking and diligent staff who
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carry out the often thankless task of staffing our prisons.

What is equally certain is that there can be no tolerance for corruption at any level within the prison system. The job of a prison officer and of prison staff generally is a difficult and unpopular one. Prison staff deal every day with the people society would rather not know about - drug addicts, con men, the violent, the impetuous and the manipulators. The overwhelming majority of staff deal with those challenges in a thoroughly professional manner. Those honest officers do not need the additional burden of suspicion of corruption or criminality cast upon them by the conduct of people such as former officer Sua. Former officer Sua first came under the suspicion of the internal surveillance staff of the department more than five years ago. Over the next couple of years, additional intelligence was obtained casting suspicion upon him. I make no comment now as to why those suspicions were not pursued conclusively in 1992. No doubt the ICAC hearings will canvas that issue in some depth.

I can confirm that from the end of 1994, under the administration of my predecessor the Hon. John Hannaford, resource investment in the investigative arm of the department began to improve. I pay tribute to him and to former Commissioner Major General Smethurst in that respect. In providing additional resources to properly investigate corruption the Hon. John Hannaford departed significantly from the policies of his coalition predecessors, such as the former member for Vaucluse, who sought to fight corruption in gaols by the simple expedient of having them burn to the ground. I am proud that this Government has rectified the situation. The resources available to intelligence and investigation units within the Department of Corrective Services have been greatly improved under my administration and that of the new commissioner, Dr Keliher. In 1994-95 a total of $2.147 million was allocated to the investigation and surveillance units.

In 1996-97 a total of $3.152 million was spent, representing a 47 per cent increase over the last expenditure by the coalition Government. Since I have become Minister I have made it a priority to pursue corruption in any form within the department, to increase the openness and accountability of the department, and to improve co-operation and liaison with external accountability agencies such as the Ombudsman and the ICAC. The increase in resources and the resulting improvements to the department’s internal investigative units over the past two years, and particularly over the last year, have returned results that the community wants to see. The department’s investigators have obtained hard evidence of misconduct by a number of prison staff. They have worked with the police and other agencies to compile briefs of evidence in a thorough and professional manner and they have taken these matters as far as they can under the powers available to them.

This cluster of investigations, including the investigation into officer Sua, was handed over to the ICAC for investigation earlier this year. At the request of ICAC investigators, Sua was suspended but not dismissed to enable covert investigation of a number of additional leads. He was subsequently dismissed from his position as a prison officer just as soon as the ICAC investigators informed the department that this course of action was appropriate. Under the much greater and more sweeping powers available to the ICAC the matters have now been jointly progressed by both the ICAC and the department’s investigators to today’s public hearing into former officer Sua. The professionalism of the department’s internal investigation unit has been recognised by the ICAC. The department has handed over to the ICAC its full intelligence database and, as a result, a number of covert joint operations have been launched.

Some of those operations are a matter of public record; others are still to bear fruit. However, I can confirm that investigation staff from the department and from the ICAC have worked successfully and co-operatively over the last year and, in a number of cases, have obtained clear and compelling results. The commissioner, the department and, I should emphasise, the prison officers union, with whom I met recently to discuss these matters, are united with me in a message to the staff of the department: there is a policy of zero tolerance for corruption in the Department of Corrective Services. If people are breaking the rules, we will work day and night to uncover them and they will encounter the full force of the law. Any report of corrupt or criminal conduct made to my office or to the commissioner will be reported to the ICAC - no ifs, no buts and no maybes.

[Interruption]

Mr DEBUS: Ask the ICAC. The honourable member should not be silly.

Mr Tink: You are the Minister.

Mr DEBUS: That is why I know that the matter is in the hands of the ICAC. The security of the community depends on the staff of the Department of Corrective Services. The dedication and probity of those people must be beyond
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question. I welcome the work of Commissioner Barry O’Keefe and his team who have shown a commitment to rigorous investigation and to the sort of system-wide response that will help the department in the process of reform by purging staff members who have breached the community’s trust. I once more guarantee my and the department’s co-operation in this inquiry.

Questions without notice concluded.

Dr REFSHAUGE (Marrickville - Deputy Premier, Minister for Health, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) [3.30 p.m.]: The motion is urgent because this is the first opportunity for the Parliament to debate the issue since the nursing home fee changes were introduced. The motion is urgent because of the distress that is being experienced by some hundreds of people throughout New South Wales, as represented by calls to the hotline that was established by this Government. Their distress, which is obviously of great concern to them, should be of great concern to every member in this Chamber. There is no doubt that this matter also should be regarded as urgent by the Federal Government. By debating it here today, the first opportunity for debate since the changes were introduced, we will show our commitment to remedying the situation and also show the Federal Government that New South Wales, the largest State in the nation, has grave concerns about the changes that it has implemented. I urge all members to vote for my motion to be debated.

Mr COLLINS (Willoughby - Leader of the Opposition) [3.32 p.m.]: In May 1995 the Premier said, "Let me say very firmly that there will not be privatisation of electricity under a Labor Government." Spot on. In fact, it is a line that we will pinch. This motion is urgent.

Mr Gibson: On a point of order. My point of order is the same that I have taken many times in this Chamber. The Leader of the Opposition must prove to the Chamber why his motion is more urgent. He has no right to move into its substance.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! I uphold the point of order.

Mr COLLINS: This is the first time that the Parliament has had an opportunity to consider the electricity privatisation issue since the Australian Labor Party conference decided to dump the Premier, to leave the Premier high and dry. This is the first chance that the Parliament has had to debate the plan - what little we know of it - on which the Premier and Treasurer have been left completely stranded. At the ALP conference members opposite sat like deaf mutes and did nothing to support the Premier and Treasurer.

Mr Gibson: On a point of order. The Leader of the Opposition must prove why his motion should be heard today. The standing orders do not allow him a five-minute free kick at the Government. He has to prove why his motion should be heard rather than the Deputy Premier’s motion. He is not at liberty to move into the substance of the motion.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition was observing the spirit of the standing orders, although he was straying from the subject when the point of order was taken.

Mr COLLINS: The motion is urgent because the Premier of the State no longer enjoys the confidence and trust of his party. With the resumption of Parliament we know that the Premier and the Treasurer, who controls the financial management of the Government, do not enjoy the trust and confidence of their colleagues, or of the party which elected them. Debate of this motion is absolutely crucial to allow members of Parliament to put on the public record the views they expressed at the ALP conference on this fundamental issue. The honourable member for Bathurst has spoken often enough on this issue outside the Chamber. It is urgent that he puts his views on the record in the Chamber.

Mr Gibson: On a point of order. The Leader of the Opposition must prove why it is more important that his motion be debated. The motion has no relevance whatsoever to the honourable member for Bathurst or any other member on this side of the Chamber. His only mission is to prove why his motion is more urgent than the Deputy Premier’s motion.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will state the point of order.

Mr Gibson: That the Leader of the Opposition must prove why his motion is more urgent to be heard today than the Deputy Premier’s motion.

Mr COLLINS: Sit him down, Mr Speaker. He has no point of order. These interruptions are deliberate and they are permitted day after day.

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Mr SPEAKER: Order! I uphold the point of order.

Mr Clough: On a point of order.

Mr Hartcher: Mr Speaker, the time has expired.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Bathurst will state the point of order.

Mr Clough: I was on my feet before time expired. The point of order, as the honourable member for Londonderry has said -

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Bathurst is out of order. I have already ruled on that matter.

[Time expired.]

Question - That the motion for urgent consideration of the honourable member for Marrickville be proceeded with - put.

The House divided.

Ms Allan Mr Markham
Mr Amery Mr Martin
Mr Anderson Ms Meagher
Ms Andrews Mr Mills
Mr Aquilina Ms Moore
Mrs Beamer Mr Moss
Mr Carr Mr Neilly
Mr Clough Ms Nori
Mr Crittenden Mr E. T. Page
Mr Debus Mr Price
Mr Face Dr Refshauge
Mr Gaudry Mr Rogan
Mr Gibson Mr Rumble
Mrs Grusovin Mr Scully
Ms Hall Mr Stewart
Mr Harrison Mr Sullivan
Ms Harrison Mr Tripodi
Mr Hunter Mr Watkins
Mr Iemma Mr Whelan
Mr Knowles Mr Windsor
Mr Langton Mr Woods
Mrs Lo Po’ Mr Yeadon
Mr Lynch
Dr Macdonald Tellers,
Mr McBride Mr Beckroge
Mr McManus Mr Thompson

Mr Beck Mr D. L. Page
Mr Blackmore Mr Peacocke
Mr Brogden Mr Phillips
Mr Chappell Mr Photios
Mrs Chikarovski Mr Richardson
Mr Collins Mr Rixon
Mr Debnam Mr Rozzoli
Mr Downy Mr Schipp
Mr Ellis Mr Schultz
Mr Fraser Ms Seaton
Mr Glachan Mrs Skinner
Mr Hartcher Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Hazzard Mr Small
Mr Humpherson Mr Smith
Dr Kernohan Mr Souris
Mr Kinross Mr Tink
Mr MacCarthy Mr J. H. Turner
Mr Merton Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Oakeshott Tellers,
Mr O’Doherty Mr Jeffery
Mr O’Farrell Mr Kerr

Mr Knight Mr Armstrong
Mr Nagle Mr Cochran
Mr Shedden Mr Cruickshank

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Dr REFSHAUGE: (Marrickville - Deputy Premier, Minister for Health, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) [3.45 p.m.]: I move:

That this House:

(a) condemns the Howard Government for the Aged Care Act and its devastating impact on the elderly and frail in our community; and

(b) calls on the Prime Minister and the Federal Parliament to reconsider these measures in light of the distress it is causing the elderly and its broader implications for health and community services in New South Wales.

I thank the three Independents for supporting me in bringing on this motion. The Howard Government’s miserable Aged Care Act came into force on 4 October. Just 13 days later we have already seen the enormous distress and suffering this heartless Act has caused thousands of frail and aged people
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across New South Wales. Daily we are seeing and reading extremely disturbing stories about the impact of the changes on elderly people in our community. The elderly are confused, afraid, distraught and insecure. The ill-advised provisions have been introduced with extraordinary haste, minimal consultation and negligible concern about the effect they will have on some of the most vulnerable in our community. The changes have allowed the elderly, their families and aged-care providers little opportunity to understand or prepare. As a consequence we are already seeing much evidence of suffering and distress as thousands of old people face dramatically increased financial burdens and the associated emotional trauma.

On 1 October exorbitant accommodation bonds were introduced. Anyone with assets of more than $22,500 is now required to pay an up-front entry fee, on which there is no upper limit and which could amount to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Prime Minister responded to this huge increase by suggesting in all seriousness that it is quite realistic for a frail 85-year-old to make arrangements to rent out his or her house to meet the higher user-pays fees. Surely it is totally unacceptable to place this level of stress on people at a time when they are most vulnerable. Despite what John Howard and Warwick Smith tell us, many older people will be forced to sell their family homes to pay the accommodation bonds. The reality is that the Howard Government has introduced a selective form of death duties paid in advance.

In addition, from 1 November all residents of aged-care facilities will have their income tested to assess their capacity to pay the new extra daily fees. The Department of Social Security will use an 18-page questionnaire to probe back over the last five years and assess all financial transactions: savings, income, gifts or disposal of assets. All amounts involved in the transactions can be deemed to be still earning income. The Howard Government, despite its election promises, has no understanding of the needs and aspirations of older people - Australians who have worked through their lives to make an economic and social contribution to the wealth of this country, Australians who have paid their taxes and raised their families. Many of them fought in wars.

Those Australians understood that this nation would provide care for them when illness, age or disability rendered them unable to care for themselves. They are Australians who deserve a measure of security. They deserve certainty in their old age. The Howard Government has betrayed them. The Commonwealth has shifted the goalposts and broken the social pact that Australians believed the Government would honour: to look after them in their old age. Many older people put their lives on the line to fight so that we may enjoy our present freedoms and parliamentary democracy. What does John Howard do to those people? He says, "When you need to go into a nursing home we will charge you an up-front fee. We will look back through your financial transactions over the past five years. Even the smallest gift can be deemed as earning income."

Ms Hall: Disgusting!

Dr REFSHAUGE: As my colleague says, it is disgusting. The Howard Government has created turmoil and upheaval in the lives of thousands of older Australians. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that clients with a favourable financial profile are being given priority. John Howard claims that these changes are based on equity. Clearly, the coalition’s definition of equity is the creation of a two-tiered system for aged care - one system for the well off and one for the disadvantaged, who will now be required to pay more for nursing home care, which should be their right. A system that rations aged care on the basis of wealth, where the quality of care is dictated by ability to pay, is unfair and abhorrent. These changes are also placing renewed and unacceptable pressure on New South Wales public hospitals, which are already reeling from consistent Federal funding cuts. Public hospitals are facing increasing strain as acute-care beds are increasingly used to accommodate elderly patients waiting to be transferred to nursing homes. In Sydney, the Illawarra and the Hunter more than 300 elderly people are now waiting in acute-care hospital beds for nursing home placement.

The accommodation bond scheme effectively acts as an incentive for people to stay in hospital for as long as possible to delay paying a bond. This results in a lack of acute-care beds in the hospital system and means that older people are not getting access to appropriate care. A high-quality system of aged care is vital to the social and economic wellbeing of a nation. The previous Federal Government had a commitment to improving our aged-care system and access to nursing homes was determined on the basis of need, with no-one paying more than 87.5 per cent of the pension in fees and charges. The Federal Government - which it seems the Opposition supports - wants to charge our elderly up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for an accommodation bond.

Mr Brogden: That is a lie!

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Dr REFSHAUGE: The honourable member for Pittwater will have his chance to speak - but will he have the guts to resign if he is wrong? The new Minister for Family Services showed some promise, but within less than two weeks of becoming Minister he is already backtracking on his statements about reviewing key aspects of the Act. Clearly, the Howard Government is determined to use the elderly and our residential care system as a form of backdoor taxation, involving cost-shifting to the States and the payment of death duties in advance. The implications go even further, because the fall-out hits nursing homes and the professionals who care for our elderly. This Act may well foreshadow the closure of some nursing homes unless they can upgrade their facilities to meet the certification standards required for the accommodation bond.

It seems that many country nursing homes will close as a direct result of John Howard’s Aged Care Act. It will be interesting to see whether the National Party contributes to debate on this matter. The aged-care assessment teams - the geriatricians, the nurses, the social workers and other staff - are being placed under greater pressure as a result of the Commonwealth’s changes to the Aged Care Act. Those teams determine whether an elderly person needs hostel or nursing home care or can continue to live in the community with the assistance of support services. The teams are made up of dedicated professionals who are vitally involved in the aged-care system.

The Howard Government has cut funds to those dedicated professionals who are assisting the elderly in our community. It is also axing the funding for a pilot program in dementia care. As our population ages, the rate of dementia in our community is increasing, and the disease now affects one in four persons over the age of 80. But what is John Howard’s response? It is to cut the more than $12 million funding to aged-care assessment teams by almost 5 per cent. There will be a further cut of 1 per cent to funds for the teams for each financial year to 1999-2000. The aged deserve better than John Howard. When he said he looks after the families of Australia, he did not tell us that he does not care about grandma and grandpa.

Mrs SKINNER (North Shore) [3.55 p.m.]: That was a hypocritical and shameful display of absolute insincerity.

Mr Hazzard: Absolute nonsense.

Mrs SKINNER: It was absolute nonsense. Let me say plainly that the Federal Government had to introduce reforms to make the system sustainable into the next century because in 13 years Labor did nothing to meet today’s standards for nursing homes, let alone prepare them for the twenty-first century. These reforms are a recognition that Labor left nursing homes in a parlous state. A 1994 report to the Keating Government by Professor Gregory estimated that upgrading nursing homes to an appropriate standard would cost $520 million. Professor Gregory said the cause of the problem was the funding system for nursing homes introduced in the 1987 budget by the Federal Labor Government. In 1992-93, $45 million was available for nursing home capital purposes, but by 1995-96 the amount had dropped to $10.7 million, representing a 75 per cent reduction.

A study of 150 nursing homes undertaken for the Gregory report showed that 75 per cent of them needed fixing to meet design standards, 70 per cent needed fixing or rebuilding to meet Commonwealth outcome standards, 13 per cent did not meet fire authority standards, and 39 per cent of residents were in rooms of four or more. Faults in many nursing homes included toilets not being wheelchair-accessible, bathrooms without grabrails, no airconditioning or proper heating, and multistorey buildings without lifts. They are the kinds of facilities the current Minister for Health in New South Wales would condemn our older and frail members of the community to live in. Shame on him! The quality of our nursing homes needs to be lifted to a standard in which I would want my mother, my father and my older loved ones to live their last days.

I would like to see those nursing homes brought up to somewhere near the standard of most of our hostels. Why are the hostels in a much better shape than nursing homes? Because the former Federal Labor Government introduced an accommodation bond for people entering hostels. It introduced an accommodation bond for people in hostels, but apparently does not agree with the Federal Government introducing such a bond for nursing homes. I find it extraordinary that any member of this Parliament would think it acceptable for our older people to live in nursing homes that are inadequate to meet their needs.

Ms Hall: Who cares -

Mrs SKINNER: The honourable member for Swansea said "Who cares?" I care that our older people are presently being forced to live in substandard accommodation. Because of Labor’s failure to properly fund the system, between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of the nation’s nursing homes are expected to fail accreditation tests. That means
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more than 300 nursing homes are substandard. The Carr Government bleats about the system that its Federal mates ran down. The Keating Government’s response to the Gregory report was to do absolutely nothing, and that is why the Howard Government has had to introduce these reforms. The Howard Government is planning for the aged population - something that in 13 years the Labor Government only ever talked about.

The Keating Government handed over a time bomb. No responsible government can ignore the fact that more than 10 per cent of nursing homes are substandard. I ask honourable members opposite, who will make speeches based on fallacious notes handed to them by the Minister, to consider older people who are being forced by their colleagues in Canberra to live in substandard nursing homes. The Minister’s hypocrisy is overwhelming; he should stand up for the elderly instead of believing it is okay for people to live in substandard hostels.

Dr Refshauge: We know you like the rich.

Mrs SKINNER: I like all old people, regardless of their circumstances. I would not condemn one older person in this State, no matter what his or her financial circumstances, to live in a substandard nursing home. It is interesting that the Minister is of the view that I care about only one socioeconomic level. I care for them all. I do not discriminate like the Minister, who says that only a certain part of the population needs care. It is the ultimate of hypocrisy for him to move this motion. I therefore move the following amendment:

That the motion be amended by leaving out all words after the word "That" with a view to inserting instead -

this House -

(a) Condemns the former Federal Government for cutting capital funding to nursing homes by 75 per cent from $45 million in 1992-93 to $10.7 million in 1995-96, thereby ensuring thousands of our frail and elderly must live in substandard accommodation.

(b) Condemns the New South Wales Labor Party for remaining silent during these 13 years.

That is a more accurate portrayal of the Federal Government’s new regulations. The Government’s Labor mates in Canberra did nothing more than flap their lips about a commitment to the elderly and frail members of our community. The Carr Government has provided no solutions to the problem. As always in recent times on health matters, the Minister tries to blame everything on the Commonwealth. It is called blame shifting. He has cost shifted and is now into blame shifting. This urgency motion is nothing more than a shallow exercise in political rhetoric.

The Queensland coalition Government is not in favour of bonds and has decided not to charge bonds for its State-owned nursing homes. I challenged the Carr Government to do the same. Instead it has closed nursing homes and could not care less about the needs of the elderly. Every time a health crisis occurs in this State the Government blames the Commonwealth. I put to bed once and for all the Minister’s nonsensical blame shifting about Commonwealth funding and cost shifting. Every time a hospital bed is closed the Minister says it is the Commonwealth’s fault.

Dr Refshauge: Who did the cost shifting? You are caught out. It was little Ronnie.

Mrs SKINNER: Let me give you a new example of cost shifting. Under the 1993-94 Medicare agreement, funding to all States and Territories increased by 5.5 per cent in real terms. In 1997-98 total funding is currently estimated to be $4.9 billion, of which $1.6 billion is coming to New South Wales. Despite the Minister’s claims that Commonwealth funding to New South Wales has been reduced, it has been increased by about 1.3 per cent on 1996-97 funding levels. The Minister spoke about who is cost shifting. On the weekend I raised concerns expressed by doctors at St George Hospital about a revenue-raising practice being encouraged in our public hospitals. Priority is being given to private patients over public patients so that the hospitals can obtain money outside the public hospital system.

That cost-shifting exercise is being encouraged by the Minister. He admitted it was a problem by telling the media that he would instigate an inquiry. That is cost shifting. One hospital chief executive officer has said that those patients will attract more than $1,000 a week. The Minister looks so smug, but I am sure he is feeling uncomfortable. This is cost shifting and the Minister will no longer be able to use this as an excuse for failing to provide the care that people deserve. The frail and elderly deserve the Minister’s sympathy and support. They should have accommodation of a superior standard and should not be condemned to live in doghouses forced upon them by the former Federal Labor Government. [Time expired.]

Ms HALL (Swansea) [4.05 p.m.]: I support the motion and condemn the uncaring, heartless Federal Government for its treatment of the elderly in our community. The honourable member for North Shore spoke about reforms to make the
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system sustainable into the twenty-first century. If what the Howard Government has delivered to the elderly is a reform, it is cruel and heartless. It is aimed at taxing and attacking the very security of elderly citizens in this State, and the honourable member for North Shore supports that. The honourable member and the Opposition stand condemned for their position on this issue. Once again the honourable member for North Shore has demonstrated her lack of understanding in supporting this economic rationalistic approach to aged care and her contempt for the elderly in this State.

Opposition members have trivialised the debate by trying to discuss a totally unrelated issue and have once again shown their lack of concern for the elderly. This matter was discussed in the House two weeks ago and I am pleased that the honourable member for North Shore has found suitable accommodation for her mother. She did that before the Federal Government’s draconian changes came into force and I understand why she would want to beat them. In supporting these cruel, harsh changes to aged care and in refusing to support this urgency motion the Opposition is demonstrating the same heartlessness as has been shown by the Howard Government.

Yesterday I joined 500 elderly residents on the central coast who took to the streets with walking sticks or in wheelchairs to protest against the Howard Government’s attack on them. At a public meeting the president of the Belmont pensioners association described the Howard Government’s changes as attempted genocide. He said, "Why don’t they just give us a bottle of pills and tell us to kill ourselves?" Aged people are vulnerable and their security is threatened by these changes. Changes to nursing homes are just one part of the assault on elderly people. At the beginning of this year the Howard Government abolished Federal funding for dental care in New South Wales. The dental program provided essential dental care for pensioners and war veterans, especially in the State’s rural and remote communities. The effect of the abolition was immediately felt by the elderly across New South Wales. This year 200,000 people will not receive dental care because of Canberra’s penny-pinching.

Mrs Skinner: On a point of order. The honourable member for Swansea did not listen to the motion. The issue of dental care was raised during question time. It is not part of this motion.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

Ms HALL: I understand why the honourable member for North Shore does not want me to continue. She is ashamed that the Howard Government has attacked the elderly in our community through changes to the dental scheme, aged care and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, which provides necessary medicine at an affordable price to our elderly.

Mr Brogden: On a point of order. The honourable member for Swansea is referring to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme; the motion refers specifically to aged care. Mr Speaker, I refer you to Standing Order 85, which relates to relevance.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

Ms HALL: Once again the honourable member for Pittwater has demonstrated the contempt of the New South Wales Opposition and the Howard Government towards the elderly. The pharmaceutical benefits scheme is a tax on the sick. [Time expired.]

Mr BROGDEN (Pittwater) [4.10 p.m.]: Without any shadow of a doubt, the Federal Government’s aged-care plans deal with the future of aged care, given the disastrous situation in which the Keating and Hawke governments left New South Wales.

Ms Hall: On a point of order. The honourable member for Pittwater is straying from the substance of the motion. He is discussing - Mr Speaker, I am having difficulty making my point -

Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

Mr BROGDEN: The honourable member for Swansea had difficulty making her point of order because there was no point of order. The Howard Government’s reforms which extend the concept of accommodation bonds from hostels - which was a Federal Labor Government initiative - will provide a much-needed $1.5 billion injection to nursing homes over the next 10 years.

Dr Refshauge: Who pays?

Mr BROGDEN: Only those who can afford to pay will be asked to pay. Pensioners, the financially disadvantaged, those with assets worth less than $22,280, those currently in a nursing home, and those who stay in a nursing home for less than six months will not be asked to pay. The consequence of the State Government’s opposition to accommodation bonds is clear: our elderly will continue to be put into dog boxes if we do not find a sensible solution to the nursing home dilemma. The Federal Labor Government reduced funding to nursing homes in its 13 years in office. If the State Government had its way, we would continue to put
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those who have made this country what it is into dog boxes, into appalling accommodation.

[Interruption]

The Minister for Health continues to interject. My mother, who resides in his electorate, will not vote for him - his vote in Sydenham will collapse. We need to deal with the malaise in health care funding, particularly with respect to nursing homes. If we continue along the course that the Labor Party has set us, aged people will be put into substandard nursing homes.

Ms Hall: You will throw them on the streets.

Mr BROGDEN: They will not be thrown on the streets. As the ageing population increases in this country, the solution will not be cheap. Society must make provision for the aged. The State Government is hypocritical: it has attacked the Federal Government for this form of taxation and contribution, but it is happy to impose a new tax on the family home.

Ms Andrews: Family mansions.

Mr BROGDEN: No, family homes. The Federal Government did nothing in the 13 years that it was in Government.

Ms Hall: The people of Swansea are crying.

Mr BROGDEN: Because you are their local member, but that will all change when you go to the Federal Parliament. The Federal Government has made a tough policy decision to provide our aged citizens with a future in nursing homes, instead of putting them into the types of dog boxes that existed when the Federal Labor Government was in power for 13 years. [Time expired.]

Ms ANDREWS (Peats) [4.15 p.m.]: The Howard Government should be resoundingly condemned for the uncertainty, confusion and misery it has caused thousands of older Australians because of its so-called reforms to aged care. It is only two weeks since the reforms came into effect, requiring nursing home and hostel residents to pay an accommodation bond if their assets are above $22,500 for singles and $45,000 for couples. In that time two suicides have been linked to these changes. Both victims - women in their eighties - left suicide notes expressing their fears that they could not afford to go into a nursing home and pay a huge bond. At least six callers to the New South Wales Seniors Information Service said that suicide may be preferable to being pressured into selling the family home to pay an accommodation bond or being forced to pay a bond they cannot afford.

There were 200 calls to the Seniors Information Service in August and in September; in the past week there were 200 calls a day. Of those callers, 85 per cent were worried about the aged-care changes, some to the point of considering suicide. It is sad that many of these callers have been given the wrong information and have been worried needlessly. The Howard Government’s package is mean-spirited. The Government cannot explain it properly to the public, thus causing unnecessary anxiety and distress. It is disgraceful that older people who are faced with the prospect of being forced to sell the family home would rather kill themselves than pay the fees. People have little understanding of what the Howard Government is up to.

One person said, "How can the Government allow them to charge whatever they like? If my father’s house is worth $500,000 they could take all but $22,500." Another said, "When I went to the hostel to ask how much its accommodation bond would be, I was asked how much I have in assets." The daughter of an elderly woman said that her parents were distressed about having to sell their family home, which they had wanted to leave to her in their wills. A blunt question from one caller was, "Is my father being forced to sell his home?" The Federal Government has failed miserably in its attempt to get the message to older people about how the new system will work. Why should older people be expected to understand this cruel system when even the Prime Minister is confused?

John Howard said that people could always rent out their house and use the income to pay a bond by instalments. They would need to get approximately $400 a week in rent to pay a $100,000 accommodation bond - not many people have houses that would attract that sort of return, certainly not the people in the electorates of Peats, Swansea and Marrickville. In addition, if people take up Mr Howard’s advice the rent they receive will affect their pension and other entitlements because it will be assessed as income. If people pay their accommodation bond by instalment they will face an interest charge of up to 8 per cent. Thank you, Mr Howard: you have probably confused a few more thousand people. The Federal Government was so ill prepared for the community’s reaction to its so-called reforms that it left its telephone information line understaffed. In desperation, older people turned to the New South Wales Seniors Information Service for help - thank goodness at least one Government assists the elderly.

It has taken three months for the Howard Government to provide enough people to answer questions about the changes. In the meantime, the New South Wales Seniors Information Service has taken approximately 1,000 calls from confused and
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angry older Australians. Reports of ever higher accommodation bonds appear almost daily - one nursing home group in the State wants up to $175,000. The Howard Government must act to rein in the greed. John Howard said originally that accommodation bonds would be about $26,000. Now we are talking about bonds in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This package has been rushed in, yet it is so badly bungled that older people seek suicide as their only way out.

The Federal Government must recognise that a home is much more than an asset. It is a place where grandad planted the gum tree by the back fence when he returned from the war, and the grandchildren still play cricket in its shade each summer. A home is where the door post marks the passage of the children from toddlers to strapping six-footers. It is where the children were born and were married from, and is more than likely where grandma and grandfather died. A home is far more than an assessment of people’s net worth in their final years. The Howard Government has driven older people to desperate measures. It is appalling that there is no cap whatsoever on accommodation bonds. In addition, daily nursing home fees are set to rise from next month, and the Howard Government is only now recognising its responsibility to explain all this to older people. [Time expired.]

Dr REFSHAUGE (Marrickville - Deputy Premier, Minister for Health, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) [4.20 p.m.], in reply: I thank the honourable member for Peats and the honourable member for Swansea for their contributions to the debate. Contributions by Opposition members deserve comment because of their lack of compassion for the elderly and their lack of knowledge about what is happening in the health care system around this nation. It is surprising that the Opposition, which claims to want to represent the people of this State, is prepared to support its Federal colleagues at the expense of this State and all other States.

No other States support the changes, but the Opposition supports them. Jeff Kennett does not support them. When Opposition members wanted some inspiration about how to be elected to government they went to see Jeff Kennett. But as soon as they returned they pretended not to know him. They support Johnny Howard. There is no doubt Little Johnny desperately needs their help, but they should stand up for the people of New South Wales. Opposition members suggest that if an inquiry was ordered by a Minister, the allegation must be true. That suggestion related to cost-shifting issues raised by the Opposition. An inquiry was ordered by the Premier into the allegation that the Leader of the Opposition conspired with others, including Justice Wood, to stop the names of paedophiles being publicised.

Mrs Skinner: On a point of order. The Minister is wandering away from the topic considerably. I ask you to rule him out of order and bring him back to the substance of the motion.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

Dr REFSHAUGE: They do not like it when their own words come back to them. The honourable member for North Shore said when an inquiry is held it proves their must be some substance to the allegation. She said the Minister admitted it because he said an inquiry would be held. Those were the words of the honourable member for North Shore; that is the way she thinks, and that is now a policy issue. I remind the honourable member that many inquiries were held by the former Government. She also said the Federal Government is blaming the States for cost shifting, and she asked who was doing the cost shifting. When Michael Wooldridge wrote to me and said money would be taken from our public hospitals, he said Ron Phillips did the cost shifting. What did members of the Opposition say about that? They were absolutely silent.

The honourable member for North Shore again refers to blame shifting, but she forgets that the coalition did the wrong thing. She said we should not shift the blame, but she wants to amend the motion to shift the blame elsewhere. There is no consistency; the Opposition has no credibility, no respect in the general community and no policy. The honourable member for Pittwater said that only those who can afford it will have to pay accommodation bonds. His words will come back to haunt him when he finds that people who cannot afford it are asked to pay accommodation bonds. He also says the Federal Government has dealt with this issue adequately. That presumably means he does not support any change to the Federal Government’s proposition. There has been an opportunity to debate changes. When the Prime Minister recently had the chance to reshuffle his Cabinet, he decided to move the person who introduced the proposition. His actions clearly show that he had no faith in what his own Minister was doing. The State Opposition has ignored the people of New South Wales, in particular the elderly, in its mad scramble to prop up Little Johnny Howard. These days he is never referred to as Honest John, because he is not honest.

Question - That the words stand - put.

The House divided.

Page 701

Ms Allan Mr Markham
Mr Amery Mr Martin
Mr Anderson Ms Meagher
Ms Andrews Mr Mills
Mr Aquilina Ms Moore
Mrs Beamer Mr Moss
Mr Clough Mr Neilly
Mr Crittenden Ms Nori
Mr Debus Mr E. T. Page
Mr Face Mr Price
Mr Gaudry Dr Refshauge
Mr Gibson Mr Rogan
Mrs Grusovin Mr Rumble
Ms Hall Mr Scully
Mr Harrison Mr Stewart
Ms Harrison Mr Sullivan
Mr Hunter Mr Tripodi
Mr Iemma Mr Watkins
Mr Knowles Mr Whelan
Mr Langton Mr Windsor
Mrs Lo Po’ Mr Woods
Mr Lynch Mr Yeadon
Dr Macdonald Tellers,
Mr McBride Mr Beckroge
Mr McManus Mr Thompson

Mr Beck Mr D. L. Page
Mr Blackmore Mr Peacocke
Mr Brogden Mr Phillips
Mr Chappell Mr Photios
Mrs Chikarovski Mr Richardson
Mr Collins Mr Rixon
Mr Debnam Mr Rozzoli
Mr Downy Mr Schipp
Mr Ellis Mr Schultz
Mr Fraser Ms Seaton
Mr Glachan Mrs Skinner
Mr Hartcher Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Hazzard Mr Small
Mr Humpherson Mr Smith
Dr Kernohan Mr Souris
Mr Kinross Mr Tink
Mr MacCarthy Mr J. H. Turner
Mr Merton Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Oakeshott Tellers,
Mr O’Doherty Mr Jeffery
Mr O’Farrell Mr Kerr

Mr Carr Mr Armstrong
Mr Knight Mr Cochran
Mr Nagle Mr Cruickshank
Mr Shedden Ms Ficarra

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Amendment negatived.

Question - That the motion be agreed to - put.

The House divided.

Ms Allan Mr Markham
Mr Amery Mr Martin
Mr Anderson Ms Meagher
Ms Andrews Mr Mills
Mr Aquilina Ms Moore
Mrs Beamer Mr Moss
Mr Clough Mr Neilly
Mr Crittenden Ms Nori
Mr Debus Mr E. T. Page
Mr Face Mr Price
Mr Gaudry Dr Refshauge
Mr Gibson Mr Rogan
Mrs Grusovin Mr Rumble
Ms Hall Mr Scully
Mr Harrison Mr Stewart
Ms Harrison Mr Sullivan
Mr Hunter Mr Tripodi
Mr Iemma Mr Watkins
Mr Knowles Mr Whelan
Mr Langton Mr Windsor
Mrs Lo Po’ Mr Woods
Mr Lynch Mr Yeadon
Dr Macdonald Tellers,
Mr McBride Mr Beckroge
Mr McManus Mr Thompson

Mr Beck Mr D. L. Page
Mr Blackmore Mr Peacocke
Mr Brogden Mr Phillips
Mr Chappell Mr Photios
Mrs Chikarovski Mr Richardson
Mr Collins Mr Rixon
Mr Debnam Mr Rozzoli
Mr Downy Mr Schipp
Mr Ellis Mr Schultz
Mr Fraser Ms Seaton
Mr Glachan Mrs Skinner
Mr Hartcher Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Hazzard Mr Small
Mr Humpherson Mr Smith
Dr Kernohan Mr Souris
Mr Kinross Mr Tink
Mr MacCarthy Mr J. H. Turner
Mr Merton Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Oakeshott Tellers,
Mr O’Doherty Mr Jeffery
Mr O’Farrell Mr Kerr

Page 702

Mr Carr Mr Armstrong
Mr Knight Mr Cochran
Mr Nagle Mr Cruickshank
Mr Shedden Ms Ficarra

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed.

Mrs SKINNER (North Shore) [4.40 p.m.]: I had the privilege of being invited by the Asthma Foundation of New South Wales, not only as the Shadow Minister for Health but as a mother of two sons who suffer from asthma, to launch Asthma Week 1997 this morning. Fortunately, neither of my sons has asthma in its most debilitating form but I am well aware of the dangers of the condition. I am extremely sorry that at least one member of the House sees fit to make a joke of this condition, which is the most chronic illness amongst young children in Australia. I am also aware of the stress the condition causes for sufferers and their carers. I suggest that members opposite, especially Ministers, should take more seriously the concerns of parents and carers of children with asthma. Over the years some children who suffer severe and chronic asthma attacks have stayed at my house and I am very conscious of the responsibility involved in caring for them.

I am also aware of the growing incidence of asthma. I was surprised when my sons were first diagnosed because there was no family history of asthma: I have not suffered from it, nor have my brother and sisters. I remember only one childhood friend who suffered from asthma. However, many of my children’s friends suffer from the illness. There is an alarming increase in the number of young people with asthma and it is now the most chronic illness in childhood. It is the most common cause for school absenteeism and visits to the local doctor and a major cause of hospitalisation. Asthma can be a life-threatening medical condition. In 1995 two students of school age died from asthma each month in Australia and Australia has the highest rate of youth mortality attributed to asthma.

Statistics show that one in four primary school students and one in seven high school students in New South Wales have asthma. But the great news is that with proper management asthma sufferers can get on with life. My sons are both fanatic snowboarders who have successfully competed in national championships. Also, one played strenuous water polo every week for many years and the other is a committed rower, as is one of the children of the Minister for Health. We all need to be aware of managing asthma. It is a matter of becoming aware of the extent of asthma, ways to make the environment less likely to bring on an asthma attack, how to manage asthma to reduce the number and severity of attacks and how to treat the attacks when they occur.

The Asthma Foundation has been at the forefront of bringing the facts about asthma to the community. It has done a wonderful job during its 36 years of involvement in research, fundraising and welfare works such as children’s holiday camps, in providing swimming instruction through a team of volunteers and particularly in the field of educating and providing information to help people understand and manage asthma. Given the high incidence of asthma amongst young school-age children it was most appropriate that this morning’s launch of Asthma Week was at Orange Grove Public School. I presume that you, Mr Speaker, were unable to be present?

Mr SPEAKER: Orange Grove Public School is not in my electorate.

Mrs SKINNER: The local member was not present, nor was the Minister for Health. It is most appropriate that the foundation’s theme for this year’s Asthma Week is "Asthma in Schools". As children spend at least six hours a day in school, it is imperative that teachers and ancillary staff are aware of students in their care with asthma and how to manage an asthma attack. Parents need to feel confident when sending children with asthma to school that school staff are able to help and support them if needed. Asthma Australia and the Asthma Foundation of New South Wales have compiled and sent to all 4,000 schools in New South Wales an information package on how to become an asthma-friendly school. The package includes information on how schools can help students with asthma and how to make a school asthma friendly with tips about appropriate materials to be used inside schools and what to plant in school grounds.

At today’s Asthma Week launch I was pleased to meet Dr Sandra Anderson, who, with her research team working in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and funded by the National Health and Medical Research Foundation of Australia, has developed a new test for asthma. The test was reported for the first time in the media last week and was described in a paper
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published last month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. This initiative, of which we should all be extremely proud, is a first for New South Wales. I am sorry that the Minister for Health is not listening because I had hoped that he would join with me in congratulating Dr Anderson and her team in developing this new asthma test.

The concept for the test is that it will provide an inexpensive and disposable office- or laboratory-based test for the diagnosis of asthma and for assessing its severity and response to treatment. The idea for the test arose from studies on how and why asthma can occur during and after exercise. People who are found to be positive to the mannitol test, as it is known, are also likely to suffer from exercise-induced attacks of asthma. The test involves inhaling a dry powder of the sugar mannitol, which is similar to icing sugar. Mannitol comes from the manna tree and, as Dr Anderson told me, is often known as manna from heaven. Dr Anderson advised me that the expectation is that the test, once approved, will become a therapeutic monitor for asthma and there is interest in commercialising the product throughout Australia and potentially as an export product.

The total monetary cost of asthma to Australia is estimated to be up to $720 million. I have talked about young people suffering from asthma because the focus of Asthma Week this year is asthma in schools, but asthma affects people of all ages. Much of the monetary cost is related to medical expenses but a large proportion is related to loss of earnings of people in the work force and workplace losses. I believe that all Australians would want us to address this issue. Apart from the monetary cost there is the cost in lost school days, and the stress involved from seeing a person, particularly a young person, suffer or even die from the disease, is incalculable. This week all 4,000 New South Wales schools received the Asthma Foundation information kit, which incudes helpful tips on how to deal with asthmatic students in schools and information to make people conscious of the need to be able to identify and manage asthma.

Simple and practical tips include advice on the contents of medicine kits and the most appropriate materials - inks and furnishings - and cleaning products to be used in schools, and that plants that produce fewer pollen are less likely to bring on asthma attacks. It is very practical information which raises awareness in schools about the extent and seriousness of asthma. There is nothing more distressing to the parent of an asthmatic than worrying that the school may not understand the disease and may inadvertently ask the child to do something that the parent knows will bring on an asthma attack. It is ironic that sport and physical exertion can bring on asthma in young people who use sport to develop their lung capacity and breathing skills. As I said, I had enormous pleasure in launching the program this morning. I hope that all 4,000 schools in New South Wales take up the Asthma Foundation’s offer to help prevent the anguish involved when people lose children and loved ones because of the growing incidence of asthma in our country.

Dr REFSHAUGE (Marrickville - Deputy Premier, Minister for Health, and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) [4.50 p.m.]: The Government takes much pride in its record on asthma. It was this Government which introduced the asthma card system, which represents best practice in asthma management.

Mrs Skinner: Pharmacists.

Dr REFSHAUGE: The honourable member for North Shore is so partisan in relation to the involvement of the Government with the asthma card system that she does not want to recognise the Government contribution even though pharmacists are prepared to recognise it. The asthma card is now carried by hundreds of thousands of citizens. Other States are following the lead of New South Wales. We recently led the nation in improving awareness of the potential risks for asthmatics of products such as royal jelly. The Australian New Zealand Food Authority last week followed our lead and has supported bigger and better labelling of royal jelly products. Our asthma strategy is comprehensive. We have funded the activities of an expert panel for asthma which is developing a strategic plan for the management of asthma.

The Government has funded a project of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine on primary prevention of asthma. We are conducting extensive surveys to better assess the incidence of asthma in the community. The surveys will follow some 17,000 people. Questions are being designed to ascertain the prevalence of asthma. In view of the increase in asthma in Australia compared to other countries, it is important to keep tabs on what is happening. We have also funded a review of the asthma management guidelines by the Australian Thoracic Society. Only last month we announced $316,000 in funding for a study of the causes of asthma in early childhood.

The list goes on. At every turn and at every stage we are progressing in the campaign against the impact and incidence of asthma. I am also pleased
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to foreshadow that later this week we will make a further major announcement about yet another initiative of the Government. Asthma is one of the most common diseases amongst Australians. It is an epidemic that touches every stratum of society, no matter where people live or how rich or poor they are. Every one of us knows someone who suffers from asthma. The trauma of asthma suffered by the individual is bad enough; families see and feel that trauma as well. In the lead-up to Asthma Week it has been reported recently that people - too many people - are still dying from asthma.

We are building on our record and expanding the knowledge that we have. We are bringing expert groups together. We are funding three key working groups established under the auspices of the expert panel - the clinical management working group, the monitoring and surveillance working group and the prevention working group. The Department of Health is widely disseminating a number of reports throughout the health industry and the community. "Asthma and the Environment: Perspectives on the Prevention of Asthma" was released in August. It was a report of one of the working groups I mentioned and was part of the improving asthma care and outcomes initiative. Also published in August was a report entitled "Key Points from Asthma and the Environment: Perspectives on the Prevention of Asthma". The Australian Thoracic Society and the national asthma campaign have worked to identify appropriate management of asthma and to inform relevant practitioners of the appropriate treatment and investigations of people with asthma.

Often previously the range of asthma treatments offered has not been as consistent as we would wish. The working parties are keen to ensure that management of asthma is consistent and founded on evidence-based medicine that does not languish into past practice. We should ensure that current practice is effective - the most effective. For the first time ever area health services are obliged to have in place active health improvement strategies for asthma as a feature of current performance agreements being signed by the department and each area health service. The matter has been put at that level not only because of the incidence of asthma but also because of our belief that we can manage it better. We need to make sure that asthma management, treatment, identification and prevention are not just words but are put into action.

I was invited to attend the launch of asthma awareness week but unfortunately I was unable to attend today. I asked my director-general to attend in my absence but I understand that this was declined by the Asthma Foundation. I do not know the reason but I would thank the honourable member for North Shore for being part of the launch. It is important in these times when politics tends to get rough and tumble that bipartisanship in some areas is maintained. Asthma week should not pass without notice. I thank the media for their attention to many of the issues raised. The issues have been raised without trivialisation or melodramatic and inappropriate overemphasis. We can still make major improvements in the management of asthma and in view of the incidence of asthma in Australia we need to take action in this regard.

Mr BROGDEN (Pittwater) [4.58 p.m.]: I am pleased to join with the honourable member for North Shore, the shadow minister for health and youth affairs, in speaking on the launch of Asthma Week earlier today by the shadow minister at the Orange Grove Public School in Rozelle-Leichhardt. As a young person, although asthma did not affect me, I noticed that it affected other children at school. It was very debilitating and, unfortunately, unnecessarily embarrassing for them, particularly during organised school sporting events. In the runup to Asthma Week only a week ago I learnt to my great shock and horror that Australia has the highest proportion of asthma sufferers of any nation in the world. Therefore Australia, and New South Wales in particular, should have health policies which adequately address the needs of asthma sufferers.

As the honourable member for North Shore mentioned earlier, the theme of this year’s Asthma Week is asthma in schools. My colleague officially launched Asthma Week this morning at Orange Grove Public School. It is interesting that she, the shadow minister, and not the Minister, was asked to launch the event. That is fantastic recognition of the work of the shadow minister and the Liberal Party in the area of health care generally and asthma in particular. It is a real feather in the cap of any Opposition to be asked to launch the official week of any organisation - in this case the Asthma Foundation of New South Wales. Joining the honourable member for North Shore were leading paediatric asthma specialist Professor Richard Henry and asthma sufferers Matthew Dunn and Stephen Whitehead. These two men have refused to allow asthma to rule their lives and have gone on to success in their chosen sporting fields.

Matthew Dunn is an Olympic swimmer and Stephen Whitehead is one of the Sydney Kings basketball team. While Matthew Dunn and Stephen Whitehead have successfully controlled their asthma, too many have succumbed to the life-threatening
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illness. In Australia two school-age children die from asthma each month, which is two too many. This is the highest reported rate of youth mortality attributed to asthma in the world. As part of Asthma Week, Asthma Australia has sent to all 4,000 New South Wales schools an asthma-friendly schools information package. The Opposition urges all schools to utilise the information provided in the kit. Many facts about asthma are included in the kit, which includes many facts about asthma. Asthma is on the increase in our school-age children.

One in seven secondary school students and one in four primary school students have asthma. The illness is the major cause of child admissions to hospital. It can result in lethargy, decreased motivation and an inability to concentrate. It is also, troublingly, the most common cause of absenteeism in our schools. A massive 1.9 million Australians suffer from asthma. Whilst at this stage we cannot cure asthma, we can manage it. The asthma-friendly schools guidelines will stand schools who choose to use the information kit in a better position to manage children who have asthma. Life-threatening attacks can be avoided, while quality of life and capacity to learn can improve. Up to 1,000 calls are received each year by the Asthma Foundation from school staff requesting information on their obligations and responsibilities towards students with asthma.

Parents of children with asthma need to feel confident that when sending their children to school the school has the knowledge and capacity to deal with an asthma attack should it happen. The information kit includes a checklist to be filled out by the school principal and returned to the Asthma Foundation. The checklist covers the recording and knowledge of children with asthma in the school, staff training for dealing with asthma cases, asthma education and the provision of asthma first-aid kits. In 1991 the annual cost of hospitalising asthmatics was conservatively estimated at $58 million. I hope that Asthma Week will help to reduce those costs and improve the quality of life for students with asthma.

Mr Martin: On a point of order. The Minister was invited to attend the launch but unfortunately was unable to attend. The position is not as the honourable member for Pittwater stated.

Mr BROGDEN: The Minister was invited to attend the launch.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Clough): Order! The honourable member for Pittwater will resume his seat.

Mrs SKINNER (North Shore) [5.03 p.m.], in reply: The comment just made by the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries is simply not true. I would be happy to produce in this House tomorrow written evidence from the Asthma Foundation, if the Government provides me with the right to table such documentation. I was invited to launch Asthma Week. I was delighted to be so invited not only because of my position in this place and the responsibilities that I carry but because I have always shown to the Asthma Foundation and others involved in it a real personal interest in asthma. For some time I have been aware, because of my own children’s asthma, of the extent of asthma amongst young people, particularly the growing incidence of the disease amongst young schoolchildren. It is interesting to note that when one has a personal responsibility for people who suffer from a particular illness, it focuses the mind. I was extremely pleased to accept the Asthma Foundation’s invitation, and I am sorry that the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries was provided with incorrect advice. I felt that I needed to put that matter on the record since he had raised it.

Mr Martin: In a bipartisan way, as it is supported by both sides.

Mrs SKINNER: Yes, in a bipartisan way. This issue should be supported by everyone. Any disease that has growing incidence, which causes the deaths of two Australians every month, cannot but require an absolute commitment on the part of all members of Parliament no matter what their political persuasion. People need to be aware not only of the extent of asthma but of the impact of ignoring asthma attacks and the risks faced by, for example, a child at school or a child who is staying with a family whose members perhaps do not understand asthma, where those responsible for his or her care lack the knowledge to deal with that issue. The Minister spoke about the efforts of the New South Wales Department of Health in addressing asthma. I believe those efforts need to be stepped up.

The Minister referred to the asthma card, an issue promoted heavily and supported by the Pharmacy Guild. My only concern is that, whilst the card is a good idea in principle, it does not necessarily solve the problem. One of the difficulties in the past has been that people with asthma have stuck to one treatment. When they have an attack they simply puff on their Ventolin inhaler. In the past very little focus has been placed by the medical profession on the efforts needed to try to prevent asthma attacks occurring in the first place. The
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Ventolin inhaler is an absolutely essential part of the kit bag of tools for people suffering from asthma, but it is very dangerous for them to make it their only tool because over time a build-up of Ventolin occurs and it becomes less efficacious.

It is extremely important that parents of children suffering from asthma are conscious of the need to have their children checked by a doctor regularly to see that they are managing the disease appropriately and that they take the variety of medications as prescribed by clinicians which can prevent an onset of asthma. For some people for whom asthma is a chronic illness, the taking of medication might be an ongoing requirement. For others - and this is true in the case of my children - asthma occurs less frequently but is almost inevitably guaranteed to be brought on if they have a respiratory infection of some kind. In the management of an asthmatic problem such as that, the clinicians may well advise that the medication that is taken to prevent the onset of asthma attacks be restricted to occasions when respiratory infections are present.

This is an extremely important medical issue. I was pleased to be involved in the launch of Asthma Week. I hope that all Australians take note of the many messages that are highlighted during this week and that everyone involved in schools puts an effort into trying to ensure that all are aware of the need to address the growing incidence of asthma in Australia, particularly amongst young people.

Discussion concluded.


Mr HARRISON (Kiama) [5.08 p.m.]: No-one should be surprised that the Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Dr Timothy Potts, moved to cancel the art exhibition which included the objectionable and provocative photograph entitled "Piss Christ". It is surprising that the exhibition was ever allowed to take place. The last Australian census showed that 70 per cent of the population of Australia are Christians. In this Christian society we protect the rights of all minor religious groups, be they Muslims, Jews, Buddhists or followers of the Baha'i faith or Confucius. We have a record of tolerance that is envied all over the world. But exhibition of this blasphemous piece of material is not about tolerance; it is about provocation. Why should the mentally sick individual Andres Serrano be encouraged, or even allowed, to come to our country and so blatantly and deliberately offend 70 per cent of the population?

On behalf of all Christians in this State who do not have the opportunity I have, I denounce him. I call for legislation to protect members of all religions from vilification in the same way that other groups have been protected. I am prepared to introduce a private member’s bill at the earliest possible opportunity and I ask all members to support it. The exhibition of a depiction of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, immersed in urine is a studied insult designed to hurt and upset all followers of Christianity, who comprise approximately one-quarter of all the people on earth.

Hurt is not necessarily breaking someone’s arm, punching someone in the mouth or in any other way inflicting physical harm on them. Sometimes hurt is felt in one’s heart and I felt a deep sense of hurt and rage when I first became aware of the depiction of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, immersed in urine. I am not a soft person; I am a little bit case hardened, having mixed with some very tough people in my lifetime. However, all of those I have fraternised with would also be horrified with what took place recently in Melbourne. In many other parts of the world retribution would be swift and sure, regardless of where the culprit tried to hide, for anyone who urinated on a revered religious artefact. If this so-called artist had chosen a statue of Buddha, Confucius or any other religious figure to revile, minority religious groups in this country would have loudly vented their rage and I am sure all honourable members would have given them unqualified support.

So, as members of the majority religion why should we have to accept this type of treatment and say nothing? I quote a relevant biblical passage from Matthew 19:27. Peter said to our Lord Jesus, "We have followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" This question must be in the minds of the people of New South Wales. Time after time we have enthusiastically and willingly supported legislation to protect minority groups but, in Peter’s words, "What about us?" When will we receive the protection that we so willingly and enthusiastically give to everyone else? I congratulate the people who recently conducted a passive vigil outside the National Art Gallery in Victoria. I do not condone the use of violence, but vilification of a person’s faith will often result in a violent spontaneous response. On behalf of all Christians in this State I demand fair and equitable treatment. If the common law does not protect us, we should legislate appropriately.

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Mr MARTIN (Port Stephens - Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries) [5.13 p.m.]: I congratulate the honourable member for Kiama, who is an honourable and deep-thinking man and is to be commended and respected for the strength of his beliefs. This matter highlights society’s need for tolerance but, at the same time, for mutual respect of all races, religions and creeds. To that end this Parliament takes full note of what the honourable member for Kiama said, and should respond to his plea.

Mr BLACKMORE (Maitland) [5.14 p.m.]: I bring to the attention of the House a concern about Dungog railway station. I say up-front that the former Government, of which I was a member, reduced staffing at Dungog station and it is to this Government’s credit that it kept its election promise and appointed two staff members to Dungog, a remote area with an ageing population. Rail transport is often the only means of transport to the Hunter Valley and Newcastle, particularly for those who wish to catch the XPT. The former Government made provision for Dungog to be an A stop for the XPT service, and that is still the case.

However, information to hand suggests that the male senior station assistant at Dungog, who worked the 2.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. shift, has been transferred to Broadmeadow. That is in line with his wishes, though he did not request it. The supervising stationmaster at Dungog has been informed that the afternoon shift assistant will not be replaced. As a result, Dungog station will be manned only between 6.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. daily, inconveniencing the elderly travelling public. I was told that the Endeavour trains would have on-board ticket facilities but to date they have not been provided. It is essential that Dungog station continue to be manned, particularly so that XPT tickets can be issued, because Dillon’s agency does not open until 9.00 a.m. Presumably, if the remaining staff member goes on leave, the station will be unattended all day. With the decrease in revenue through loss of staff, concern has been expressed that this could be used as an excuse to once again close the station completely.

The attendants at Dungog provide the elderly great assistance with their luggage, with boarding and alighting from the XPT, and answering inquiries. Many tourists alight at Dungog to go to the Barrington Guest House or other guesthouses in the area and it is essential that this commuter service be maintained. A number of stations along the Dungog line to Maitland and Newcastle remain unmanned following a decision of the former Government. As a result commuters are increasingly alighting at those stations without having purchased a ticket. CityRail inspectors will occasionally conduct a check at those stations, and I am sure that will result in a number of people being fined for travelling without a ticket. I urge the Government to continue to honour its election commitment to man Dungog station and not take the retrograde step of having one fewer staff member. I have informed the Minister of my concerns and I will continue to canvass the Government to ensure that it keeps its election promise for the remainder of its term. I ask the duty Minister to relay my concerns to the Minister for Transport.

Mr McBRIDE (The Entrance) [5.19 p.m.]: I pay tribute to the Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary at The Entrance and to the three priests who have served the parish in the past 50 years. The first priest, Father Patrick Brennan, ministered to the parish from 1947 to 1953. When Father Brennan arrived at the parish there was a church and three vacant blocks of land. His achievements included purchasing the presbytery, building the school, purchasing the convent and buying land for carnival purposes. He was hampered in many ways by the financial constraints of an infant parish and by rationing after the war. For example, it took him nearly seven months to have the phone connected to his presbytery. He sought permission from the cardinal to follow the tradition in The Entrance of holding a midnight mass, which was forbidden in the metropolitan area. He also sought permission to have a mass station at Bateau Bay. Father Brennan is fondly remembered by the older generation of the parish. It is to him that credit is due for the setting of the firm foundations of the Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Father Reg Reynolds, the second parish priest, ministered to the parish from 1953 to 1979 - some 25 years. In 1953, while Father Reg Reynolds was convalescing in Lewisham hospital, His Eminence Cardinal Gilroy suggested that The Entrance would be a nice restful place to go. Father Reynolds arrived at The Entrance and realised the great potential in the parish and for the next 25 years embarked on a massive development program. Father Reynolds could see the potential for future growth and planned the parish accordingly. Some of his achievements include the building of the new presbytery in 1955, the new carnival hall in 1959, the new church in 1962, the new school at Shelly Beach in 1974, and Reynolds Court - a retirement village comprising more than 150 units - in 1977.
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Father Reg was held in high regard not only by his parishioners but by the general population of the district. He is remembered with great affection by those who knew him. He was responsible for the advancement of the church and for 25 years of continued and untiring pastoral care. Father Reg retired in 1979 and remained in the town he loved, The Entrance, residing in what was known as Bishops House behind Copnor Hall.

The third parish priest, Father Robert Brogan, took up residence in 1980. He was appointed to Woy Woy parish as administrator on 28 June 1979. Within three months he was asked to come to The Entrance parish, an invitation he was pleased to accept. Father Brogan arrived in The Entrance to take up duty as administrator on 9 October 1979 and was appointed parish priest on 4 March 1980. He has made further additions to the primary school at Shelly Beach. However, one of his greatest contributions was the recognition of the need for a local Catholic high school. Land was acquired in Gavenlock Road, Tuggerah, for this purpose. The land was chosen because of its proximity to transport and road networks. Father Brogan was instrumental in co-ordinating the development and the financing of Mater Dei and Corpus Christi colleges. Mater Dei opened with 107 year 7 pupils in temporary accommodation at East Gosford in 1983 and was completed and opened at Tuggerah in 1985.

Corpus Christi Senior College was built on the same site in 1987. Father Brogan has made a tremendous contribution, and is still the parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary. I pay tribute to the following administrators: Father Bob Nolan, Father John Hatton and Father Bede Heather - who went on to greater glory. I also pay tribute to the following assistant priests: Father Kevin Hanna, Father Jim O’Meara, Father Colin Price, Father Brian Titmuss, Father Edmund Campion, Father Sid Moseley, Father Anthony Newman, Father Finian Egan, Father Steve Hyndes, Father Mick Harfield, Father John Milliken, Father Frank Coorey, Father Don Griffin, Father John Boyle, Father John Keeble, Father Michael O’Toole, Father Bruce Hawthorne, Father Julian Porteous and Father Henry Nikel.

Mass was first said at The Entrance in the 1860s at the home of George Taylor at Long Jetty. During the ensuing years mass was said in various places, including the home of pioneers Richard and Gertrude Taylor, who came to The Entrance in 1885. Mass was held at the Bayview and Pinehurst guesthouses, which were built in the 1900s. The priests travelled to The Entrance by ferry. In March 1914 Father O’Regan was appointed priest in charge of the parishes of Wyong and Lake Macquarie, which included The Entrance. Father O’Regan said a monthly mass in the home of Mr Louis Taylor on the current site of the El Lago Waters Resort. [Time expired.]

Mr BECK (Murwillumbah) [5.24 p.m.]: I raise a matter that concerns me and the people I represent. One of the most urgent cross-border anomalies affecting my electorate - involving the twin towns of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta - is daylight saving. More than six months ago I presented a petition containing some 3,500 signatures to the Parliament. It asked the Premier to consider the concept of a uniform time for the Queensland-New South Wales border. However, there has been no response, even though many Ministers have visited the area. Daylight saving commences on 26 October - in 12 days - and continues through to March 1998. The residents of the Tweed have to put up with a time difference of one hour. A family may have a husband who works on the Queensland side of the border and a wife who works on the New South Wales side of the border. In addition, some of their children may attend school on the New South Wales side of the border and others on the Queensland side.

I ask honourable members to imagine the confusion at breakfast time and at dinner time in such a household. Tourism is a big industry in Australia, particularly in the Coolangatta and Tweed Heads area. Daylight saving places a cost on restaurants and clubs - clubs already face enough costs with the new poker machine tax - because they have to increase their staff to cope with the extended trading hours as they cater for people moving across the border. An adjustment must be made in the Tweed, and a number of precedents have been set in this regard. For example, the price of fuel in the Tweed northern rivers area is similar to the price in Queensland, and tobacco licensing has been similarly addressed.

My electorate office at Tweed Heads has a 07 Queensland number instead of a 02 New South Wales number. People in my electorate get their electricity from Queensland. Premier Carr should consider daylight saving and give the people in my area some relief. The petition that I presented to the Parliament asked for serious consideration of the cut-off point for daylight saving being the Burringbar Ranges - that is, the Tweed shire boundary - and the region being placed on Queensland time. The people of my electorate have had to put up with this shocking anomaly for many
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years. Coolangatta airport - the sixth busiest airport in Australia - has the terminal in Queensland and the strip in New South Wales, and operates on Queensland time. We are counting down to 2000 and the Olympic Games.

The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games is asking the Government to extend daylight saving. SOCOG does not want it to start at the end of October but in the second week of August. Does SOCOG want to exclude the people of Queensland and overseas tourists who stay in Queensland, particularly on the Gold Coast, from coming to Sydney at that time? Premier Carr could address this issue before 26 October. I ask the duty Minister to take this message to the Premier. The people of my electorate do not want to put up with this nonsense for another six months. It will affect schoolchildren, tourists and people trying to get on with their lives. They want to be in the same time region as the Gold Coast. Discussions should be held between Premier Carr and Premier Borbidge so we can have a uniform time in the twin towns area, which is important for the future of the Tweed. The Premier should consider this request from the people of the Murwillumbah electorate.

Mr MARKHAM (Keira) [5.29 p.m.]: I bring to the attention of honourable members the death of Len Arber, a very dear friend of mine, in Wollongong on Wednesday, 1 October. Len worked tirelessly for the Australian Labor Party and his beloved metalworkers union. I sincerely regret that a commitment as Parliamentary Secretary for Aboriginal Affairs prevented my attending his funeral on Friday, 3 October, but I was represented by my wife, Melissa, and my youngest son, John. John is a long-time friend of Len’s son, Neil, whom we know as Sid. Neil and my youngest son have worked for David Brown Gear Industries Ltd for many years. In fact, my son completed his apprenticeship there. Len Arber often took the time to speak to my son and directed him along the right path, making him the very good tradesperson he is today.

Len had a commitment to the working class, and he counselled me on issues affecting trade unions and the local community. He was always eager to help his fellow human beings and to advance the cause of working people everywhere. Len was an active member of the Reidtown branch of the Australian Labor Party, and he supported me in two preselections and worked for me on polling booths at three State elections. Len Arber, as a great counsellor, initiated the industrial agreement to build the Port Kembla coal loader, and formed the framework for a similar agreement which led to projects such as the multipurpose berth, the grain terminal, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and the Esso-BHP oil platforms in the Illawarra region.

Len was a true gentleman who lived by the words his fellow unionists often heard him say: earn the trust of people and in return you will become trustworthy. Len played an active role in his position with the metalworkers union, which helped in the establishment of autonomous rights in Australia for the then Amalgamated Engineering Union. History shows that the AEU was controlled from Great Britain, and to achieve its independence it was necessary for a plebiscite to take place. Success in winning this outcome was attributed in no mean way to my great friend, Len Arber. That was a forerunner to the amalgamation of the AEU with the boilermakers and blacksmiths union and the sheet metal workers union, and formed the basis for the now amalgamated union.

Len was always proud of his association with trade unions and with the political organisation of the unions, mainly his beloved ALP. Len’s involvement in trade union politics allowed him see clearly the need to become involved politically, and subsequently he joined the Australian Labor Party and became very active in that organisation. At Len’s funeral, on the Friday prior to the State ALP conference, one of his younger comrades - Wayne Phillips, from the metalworkers union, as I still know it - delivered an oration, which my wife said was of understanding and support. Young Wayne appreciated that Len Arber had a wealth of knowledge and did not need to run to books or encyclopaedias because he was a walking encyclopaedia.

Activists within the trade union movement and the Labor Party at the grass roots level do not often receive recognition, and if they do, it is often only after they have lost the battle with life and have departed. I was distressed that I was unable to attend Len’s funeral, so I take this opportunity tonight on behalf of my wife and family to extend sincere condolences to Len’s wife, Rae; his daughter, Glynis, and son-in-law, John; his son, Sid; and his beloved grandchildren, Nathan and Alyce. Len will be sadly missed by all who met him, by people from both sides of politics and from both sides of the work force.

Mr SMITH (Bega) [5.34 p.m.]: It is with considerable concern that I refer, for the third time,
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to problems at Ulladulla Public School. The school was established in 1861 - over 130 years ago - with buildings designed to hold 300 students. The number of students has increased to 725, and the problems that prompted me to raise this matter previously have deteriorated further. To refresh the Minister’s memory, the school is on 10.5 hectares, which is a large site for a school, and has seven demountable classrooms, a demountable library and a demountable administration block. Those buildings are generally of poor standard, and there have been repeated applications of arsenous trioxide dust to remove termite infestations in some of them, particularly the library.

The library continues to leak and, as a result, books have been destroyed or badly damaged. The president of the Parents and Citizens Association, Mr Don Ferguson, was quoted in one of the Ulladulla newspapers as having said, "The library leaks like a sieve." There is no room in the school to hold a full assembly, and although in the past students have walked to the Catholic Church hall for such events, that also is now too small and is not generally used. Off-street parking is almost non-existent, and parents fear that students may be hit by a car before or after school hours. The school residence and staff room are located in a beautiful historic sandstone cottage, but that too is deteriorating at an alarming rate and is in urgent need of maintenance and repair, which is beyond the school’s global budget allocation.

To date staff, students and the Parents and Citizens Association have worked wonderfully under such adverse conditions, but their patience is running out. Under the previous Government, planning for an upgraded school was started in 1993-94. The work had a high priority. The department announced that construction work would probably be approved in the 1994-95 budget, but we are still waiting. Country people are fairly patient and forgiving, but two major rallies have already been held in my electorate over proposals to downgrade hospitals, and a third rally has been arranged by the Bateman’s Bay hospital action committee for Friday. The people of Ulladulla have signalled that they are no longer willing to allow their children to be taught in substandard schools. Planning for the upgrading of the Ulladulla Public School was started in 1993-94 and has attracted a high priority ever since, but no capital works funding has been provided.

I call upon the Minister for Education and Training to recognise that the 725 students of the school have a right to receive their basic education in a pleasant school environment - in a school big enough to hold a school assembly, where library resources are not ruined by dampness, and where they do not have to dodge buckets on the floor during wet weather. Surely they have a right to attend a school where the toilets work properly and there are no offensive odours? The school community is proud of its academic achievement but it is hard to engender a feeling of pride when the classrooms need painting and the carpets on the floor are rotting. Children and adults are tripping over raised or damaged paving and, as I said earlier, the lack of off-street parking is extremely worrying and very dangerous. I am sure that the school community would rather concentrate its energies on the education of its children rather than on how to cope with termites, leaking buildings and smelly toilets.

Prior to the election of the Carr Labor Government, Mrs Chadwick, the previous Minister for School Education, gave a commitment to the school that she would provide funds in the next budget to carry out these works. The parents and community of Ulladulla Public School have had enough. On 28 October a protest rally will be held. I invite the Minister for Education and Training to attend that rally. I assure him that, if he attends, he will be treated politely and cordially by the people of Ulladulla. The Ulladulla community is frustrated. It simply wants to know whether funds will be provided in the next budget to enable it to start on the planned extensions to the school. I will certainly attend the rally on 28 October. I will put as much pressure as I can on the Minister and the Carr Labor Government to ensure that that school gets its extensions. [Time expired.]

Mr AQUILINA (Riverstone - Minister for Education and Training, and Minister Assisting the Premier on Youth Affairs) [5.39 p.m.]: I have listened with interest to the comments of the honourable member for Bega in relation to Ulladulla Public School. There is a lot of genuine concern about the plight of students at that school and about the condition of the school. When the Carr Government came to office, planning for the upgrading of that school had not been completed. I have been working on completing that upgrading. Everyone knows that there are a lot of budgetary constraints. Pressure has been placed on the Government’s capital works budget because quickly expanding areas on the north coast, on the western fringes of Sydney and in south-western Sydney have taken up a lot of the funding.

I assure the honourable member for Bega that emergency maintenance at that school will be carried out posthaste. I assure the honourable member that this capital works project will receive
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priority. However, I cannot give him any guarantees as I am subject to the same budgetary process that all Ministers must comply with. This morning I rang the principal of Bega High School, Jim Connolly, and expressed regret about the tribulations that that school is going through at the moment. Students in year 12 are getting ready for their higher school certificate. Lauren Barry, a student in year 9, and Nichole Collins, a student in year 11, have disappeared. I take this opportunity to say to the principal that he has our support. I, as Minister, will provide the school with whatever resources are required.

Mr CRITTENDEN (Wyong) [5.41 p.m.]: Yesterday at 1.00 p.m. people from the Legacy hostel at Norah Head as well as other aged people in the community demonstrated in the main street of Toukley. Honourable members would be aware that my constituents in the Wyong electorate are mainly aged residents.

Mr Armstrong: You are a youngster.

Mr CRITTENDEN: I represent them well. Those people, who were demonstrating for the first time in their lives, were complaining that the Federal Government will deny them $11.22 of their fortnightly pensions as a result of the way in which rent assistance will be paid. Following recent Federal changes people living in hostels and nursing homes now have to pay 85 per cent of the total cost. Wealthy members opposite might not think that $11.22 is a great deal of money, but to people living in hostels it is a major sum. It represents a box of chocolates or some of the luxuries of life that they have enjoyed and that will now be denied to them.

Mrs Dot Ward, the 80-year-old lady who organised the rally, has lived at the Legacy hostel at Norah Head for several months now. Mrs Ward, despite her ill health, feels strongly about this issue. She is typical of her generation. She has fought hard for a better life for her children and for younger members of the community. Mrs Ward, who was in the Royal Air Force, met her husband, Roy, while he was serving with the Royal Australian Air Force. They were married in 1943 and emigrated to Australia in 1948, and Mrs Ward became an Australian citizen in 1949. She, like many people of her generation, supported her husband, who was a full-time worker and worked hard in this country. She supplemented the family income through singing.

Mrs Ward is not what one might call a wealthy person. She lived on the central coast for many years before moving to the Legacy hostel at Norah Head. However, she sees this move by the Federal Government as the thin end of the wedge. During debate on the urgency motion earlier today, we heard much about bonds. What about the fees that the Federal Government is forcing on people by this sleight of hand? As I said earlier, $11.22 might not seem much to some members in this House, but it represents a great deal to people living in the Legacy hostel. I was pleased to see the Federal member, Peter Morris, at the demonstration. He gave these people a great deal of support and he will take their concerns to the Federal Parliament. My colleague the honourable member for Swansea - the endorsed Australian Labor Party candidate for Shortland at the next Federal election - also attended the rally. If we are not careful our older people will be kicked around and treated as second-class citizens.

The Premier said in answer to a question without notice today that these older people suffered the deprivations of the Great Depression; they endured the Second World War; and they helped this country successfully conclude that war. They are responsible for the post-war industrial and economic success in this country. It is a shame that the Federal Government is now placing onerous burdens on people who can least afford it and is taking away most of their luxuries. Legacy is a well-respected organisation in the Wyong electorate. If someone had said to me that these older people would be demonstrating in the main street of Toukley I would not have believed it. That reflects the extent of the concern of people living in the Legacy hostel and of others who will also be affected.

Mr ARMSTRONG (Lachlan - Leader of the National Party) [5.46 p.m.]: Earlier this year the town of Parkes and the city of Sydney were joined in horror at the appalling murder of a young Parkes man, David Carty, who was serving in Fairfield as a police constable. His death was one of sheer brutality: he was murdered with a machete. Incredibly, last week a man accused of the murder was released on bail. I say it is incredible because the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions did not oppose bail. In fact, the DPP’s failure went further. The DPP did not inform the Carty family in Parkes that one of the alleged murderers of their son would apply for bail. The DPP did not even inform
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the police, who would have vigorously opposed the application.

I ask the House to consider for a moment the dreadful situation that has been allowed to occur and, as a result, the considerable potential threat to public safety. I am talking about a man believed by police to have the capability of cutting a fellow human being to death with a machete. His reason? The man, and his accomplices, allegedly did not like being told to stop using offensive language in public. That is one of society’s laws and Constable Carty did no more than carry out his job as an appointed representative of the law. But the suspect did not like being admonished and, according to police, he and the other four suspects slew the young policeman. Think about that for a moment. A person who allegedly thinks it fair to hack someone to death if he does not like what that person says to him is freely walking the streets. What if the alleged murderer was told by a parking inspector to move his car? What if a council employee knocks on the alleged murderer’s door to tell him to stop his dog barking? What if a bus driver merely demands that the alleged murderer pay the bus fare?

A hundred situations in life every day could potentially spark a maniacal murder by this person or by the other men still charged over David Carty’s death. That is why the usual procedure is to keep such suspects behind bars until they face trial. It is commonsense to do so to prevent future tragedy. If the DPP wishes to continue the practice of not using its legal authority to protect the public, the least it can do is send dozens of its well-paid staff onto the streets of Sydney to warn the populace to treat this murder suspect very gently. The DPP should inform the public to step well clear of this suspect because if they accidentally bump into him on George Street or accidentally spill his beer in a hotel the consequences could be fatal. The DPP should ask the Department of Transport to tell bus drivers to be careful when picking up this man, to let him on the bus for free because he has allegedly committed a bloody murder.

The DPP should warn City Rail staff not to request this man’s ticket or even to ask him to take his feet off the seat because they could die. The DPP should ring the water board to warn its staff not to read the water meter at the suspect’s house to avoid the chance of another lethal machete attack. In short, the DPP should tell the people of New South Wales it did not have the guts to do its job. This case has been mishandled by the DPP. It must be the last time that ever happens. David Carty’s death must count for something. In Parkes and in the eyes of his peers he is rightfully regarded as a hero, an upstanding young man who took up society’s most honourable occupation - protecting others and upholding the law. Yet how poorly has David Carty been served by the law in which he believed.

The DPP is supposed to protect the public. With millions of taxpayer dollars received annually the DPP’s purpose is to ensure that the public interest is served and that crimes are suitably punished. When sentences are inadequate the DPP should appeal against the decision and seek stiffer punishment. But it appears that the DPP no longer understands the views of the community. As elected representatives of the community of New South Wales, it is the duty of members to make sure that agencies such as the DPP are accountable. The coalition has comprehensively studied this matter and believes the best outcome is for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to oversee decisions of the DPP. That is the intent of the private members’ bill to be brought by the honourable member for Eastwood and shadow minister for police, Andrew Tink.

Making the DPP more accountable to Parliament has several important benefits that will make our society ultimately safer. When Parliament makes sure that the DPP does its job properly police morale will be restored. When a murder suspect is held in custody until trial, when police know that the DPP will keep him there, the police can enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done instead of worrying about when the suspect will be set free. When a dangerous suspect is properly detained the police can turn their resources to solving the next crime. Obviously witnesses are scared that anyone charged will not be restrained until the trial begins. After all, that is the lesson the public has learned from the David Carty case. The system is failing victims, witnesses and the police. Until the Carr Government supports the coalition’s plan to make the DPP accountable the system will continue to fail. The Government must vote in favour of the shadow minister’s bill if it is to have any credibility in the eyes of the community as being capable of fulfilling its responsibilities by way of controlling law and order in this State.

Mr RUMBLE (Illawarra) [5.51 p.m.]: There has been a great deal of publicity recently about paedophiles and child sexual assaults and criticism of investigations of these types of crime. For example, under a strange legal anomaly no-one was convicted in the notorious and distressing Mr Bubbles case but the victims were granted compensation by another court. Recently calls have
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been made for increased penalties for those convicted of child sexual assault. I have received information in a publication about penalties imposed for sexual offences from January 1990 to June 1996.

The crime of homosexual intercourse with a male under 10 years of age carries the harshest penalty, a maximum penalty of 25 years. However, from January 1990 to June 1996 seven of the 57 persons convicted did not receive a prison sentence. Of the 50 persons sentenced to prison, nine were sentenced to four years, and six were sentenced to six years. Not one person received the maximum penalty of 25 years. The longest sentence was 16 years, which is only 64 per cent of the maximum sentence. Another category of crime called sexual intercourse with a child under 10 years of age carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in gaol. However, in this category, of 162 persons convicted of this offence from January 1990 to June 1996, only 128 went to prison. In other words, in excess of 20 per cent of persons convicted of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10 did not receive a gaol sentence.

What message is being sent to the community? The persons who did not receive a gaol sentence must be laughing their heads off at the court system, especially the person in this category who received a dismissal under section 556A of the Crimes Act. Of the 128 who went to prison, 24 were sentenced to six years and 20 were sentenced to four years. In effect, 110 of the 128 persons, or 85 per cent, who went to prison for sexual assault of a child under 10 years received seven years gaol or less. One of those received the princely sentence of six months gaol, for a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. I support an article in the Illawarra Mercury on 12 September which stated:

Aborted trial will cause much head-shaking.

The decision by two judges to abort child sexual assault trials over comments made by NSW Police Minister Paul Whelan during the launch of the Operation Paradox phone-in will have the community shaking its collective head.

Inexplicably, Queanbeyan District Court Judge . . . agreed to abort the trial of a 29-year-old man facing 10 child sex assault charges after the defendant’s solicitor successfully argued Mr Whelan’s comments meant his client could not get a fair trial.

The article continued:

While Judge . . . was busy worrying about the rights of the man accused, his decision did little in the way of showing consideration for the 12-year-old alleged victim who will now have to go through the traumatic court experience all over again.

Mr Whelan quite rightly points out that during the public hearings into paedophilia at the Wood Royal Commission, the most horrific offences against children were revealed day in and day out but there were no trials aborted.

From the information that I have received I doubt that an increased maximum gaol sentence for paedophiles is needed. All that is needed is for the courts to start imposing on perverts sentences that the community demands, instead of acting like Father Christmas to convicted paedophiles.

Mr HUMPHERSON (Davidson) [5.56 p.m.]: I raise concerns that I have received in the past few days from residents of my electorate about reports of a proposal by Manly Council and the North Head Alliance to deny vehicular access to North Head. North Head has one of the most beautiful and spectacular views of Sydney Harbour. One can look out to sea, across the harbour to South Head and Middle Head, and up the harbour towards Sydney, the city skyline and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is a popular location for visitors and locals alike. Many overseas visitors, interstate visitors and locals go there regularly to enjoy the view. I find it amazing that Mayor Sue Sacker, Manly Council and the North Head Alliance want to restrict or bar access to vehicles. Clearly this would actively discourage visitors and locals going to North Head or to Manly. Effectively, it is a form of local government NIMBYism which is intended to lock many locals and visitors out of the North Head area and keep it solely for very limited local use. Sue Sacker is reported in today’s Manly Daily as saying:

We are not aiming at saying "Everyone off North Head immediately", it would be more of a transitional process . . . Maybe we would have to look at restrictions, closing the area off to cars on some days and having it open on others.

Clearly the intent is, in part or fully, to deny private vehicles access to North Head. Because of the location, in practice that will deny or discourage most people from going there. Tonight I call on Manly Council to back down immediately on this proposal and actively dissociate itself from any proposition which would deny anybody in a private vehicle access to North Head at any time. It is proposed that a minibus system should operate. This would clearly be unworkable because of the likely frequency of visits to North Head and the non-availability of parking in the Manly area. As everyone in the area knows, parking is at a premium. It would not be possible for people to visit North Head without taking large amounts of time if they have to rely on any form of bus transport to North Head.

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The inconvenience in itself would deny access. At night when views are most spectacular it would not be possible to get to North Head by minibus as long waits and delays would occur. Indeed, there would be a substantial cost. A regular minibus service to North Head from Manly proper would involve a cost in the order of $5 per head. Simply, it would discourage people from going there. I am firmly opposed to the proposition. There should be no restriction of access to North Head, nor should there be any access fee, whether imposed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service or any other authority.

The location belongs to all people and all people should be able to access it freely and at no cost. Manly Council seems to have lost the plot on this issue in pandering to a minority view at the expense of the broad public interest. It is proposed that the national park at North Head be expanded with the inclusion of lands which are surplus to requirements of the Department of Defence with the former School of Artillery. I strongly support that proposition. The coalition supports it and I trust that the Government supports it. All surplus government bushland should be transferred to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. That would be a positive thing for all people in Sydney.

Now the onus is on Manly Council to oppose the proposal to deny private access to North Head. I call on the local member, Dr Peter Macdonald, to oppose the proposition. I look to the State Government to guarantee free access to North Head to all people in Sydney and their vehicles. If Manly Council is motivated by traffic congestion I suggest that it look to other solutions. The council did not support separation of traffic and pedestrians at the interchange outside Manly wharf. Such a proposal would allow freer access of vehicles than currently exists. There should be free and convenient access for all people to North Head. The beautiful scenery and views there should remain accessible for all time to all people.

Private members’ statements noted.

[Mr Acting-Speaker (Mr Clough) left the chair at 6.01 p.m. The House resumed at 7.30 p.m.]

Debate called on, and adjourned on motion by Dr Macdonald.

Mr LANGTON (Kogarah - Minister for Transport, and Minister for Tourism) [7.32 p.m.]: I move:

That the following papers be printed -

Report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales on Sydney Water Corporation Prices for Miscellaneous Customer Services, dated June 1997.

Report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales on Pricing of Backlog Sewerage Services: Sydney Water Corporation, Gosford City Council, Hunter Water Corporation and Wyong Shire Council, dated July 1997.

Report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal on Review of Regulation and Licensing of Air Service Operators in New South Wales, dated July 1997.

Report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal on Electricity Prices, dated July 1997.

Report of the Lake Illawarra Authority for the year ended 31 March 1997.

Report of the Office of the Legal Commissioner for the year ended 30 June 1996.

Report by the Minister for Land and Water Conservation under the Forestry Restructuring and Nature Conservation Act 1995 on Forest Industry Restructuring Expenditure for the 6 months from 1 January 1997 to 30 June 1997.

Report by the State Coroner into Deaths in Custody/Police Operations for 1996.

Mr HARTCHER (Gosford) [7.34 p.m.]: I move:

That the motion be amended by leaving out the words "Report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales on Pricing of Backlog Sewerage Services: Sydney Water Corporation, Gosford City Council, Hunter Water Corporation and Wyong Shire Council, dated July 1997".

The Sydney Water Corporation report, the printing of which I object to, fails to address the salient issue of the northern suburbs ocean outfall sewer tunnel - NSOOS - which the Government is planning to construct. The development of the tunnel constitutes yet another broken promise by the Carr Government. Before the last election the Premier complained in his water protection plan about the level of sewage being pumped into the ocean. He promised that a Carr Government would introduce water recycling alternatives to reduce reliance on ocean outfalls.

In February last year the Premier said he was committed to a new era in managing waste water as a potential resource rather than a waste to be pumped out to sea. Now he has opted for a $375
Page 715
million tunnel which will pump increased sewage into the Pacific Ocean through the North Head ocean outfall, which can only end up on our coastal beaches. This comes from a government that when in opposition complained bitterly about sewage outfalls. This comes from a government that pledged it would bring an end to sewage outfalls. Yet the Government is going to build the big daddy of all sewage outfalls - the NSOOS tunnel from Camellia and Lane Cove right across to Manly. The impact of that tunnel on the northern beaches will be devastating. Yet, this Government -

Mr Whelan: This is not on the agenda.

Mr HARTCHER: Of course the matter is on the agenda; it is before the House now. The Minister for Transport, and Minister for Tourism just moved the motion. I will continue. The Premier’s plan for a tunnel puts him at odds with the Minister for the Environment, who, on 12 February 1997, described the tunnel as "an engineer’s fantasy" with a doubtful future. So much for the reputation of the Minister for the Environment, now overruled by her leader. According to leaked Sydney Water documents, the tunnel significantly delays nine major capital works programs, including upgrades at North Head and Malabar. The tunnel was chosen without properly assessing cheaper, cleaner alternatives. It is for this reason that the Legislative Council has voted to set up a special select committee to investigate the tunnel and its options. There has not been any public tender process, despite companies expressing an interest in underwriting the project, completely eliminating financial risk to taxpayers.

The Government has been obsessed with meeting an Olympic deadline, which could add tens of millions of dollars to the final cost. This tunnel was organised so it did not go to public tender, and there is reason to believe that the Government has already made a deal with a preferred company which will in fact get the contract without it going to public tender at all. The whole thing is open to grave suspicion. The Government has ignored the Codd inquiry’s recommendation that a Government policy on sewage management should be articulated to provide for the long-term sustainable management of sewage. This is too much like hard work for the Carr Government. The tunnel is a political outcome, not a scientific one. [Time expired.]

Mr HAZZARD (Wakehurst) [7.37 p.m.]: I support the amendment moved by the honourable member for Gosford. The Opposition is particularly concerned that -

Mr Langton: On a point of order. Mr Acting-Speaker, I think you should be commended for the extraordinary latitude which you allowed the honourable member for Gosford. However, the standing orders clearly provide that debate on the motion can only relate to whether a paper should be printed and may not explore the substance of the document which is to be or not to be printed. It is clearly outside the standing orders to debate anything except the printing of papers; the substance of the issue cannot be debated.

Mr HAZZARD: On the point of order. Standing order 307 simply provides that the question of the motion is open to amendment and debate, and I am debating it.

Mr Whelan: On the point of order. The question is that certain papers be printed. It does not enable wide-ranging debate on any of the reports in question that are to be adopted or accepted by this Parliament, or otherwise. The simple question is whether the papers are to be printed, and that requires a short, deliberative speech. I refer honourable members to Speaker Rozzoli’s rulings.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Gaudry): Order! I have listened with great interest to contributions from the Minister for Transport, the honourable member for Wakehurst and the Leader of the House. The honourable member will restrict his remarks to the motion that the papers be printed.

Mr HAZZARD: For the record I point out that opposition by Government members is obviously designed to hide the Premier from any criticism of what amounts to nothing more than a flight of fantasy by him. He wants to be in a position to jump up and down -

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The member will confine his remarks to the papers being printed.

Mr HAZZARD: Mr Acting-Speaker - [Time expired.]

Mr HUMPHERSON (Davidson) [7.40 p.m.]: I wish to argue against the printing of this paper, which is of significant public interest, particularly to constituents in the area of the peninsula from which I come. Their interests will not be protected; in fact, they will be adversely affected.

Mr Langton: On a point of order. This great old book is called the standing orders.

Page 716

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The Minister will address the point of order.

Mr Langton: Mr Acting-Speaker, your previous ruling still stands. The matter that can be debated in this motion -

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order.

Mr HUMPHERSON: I intend to argue against the printing of this paper as that would be contrary to the interests of those I represent, and of all residents of the entire peninsula and Sydney region. It will not be in the public interest if the contents of these papers are published and distributed widely. The Government made a number of commitments prior to coming to office in relation to water quality in Sydney Harbour and provision of money for infrastructure capital works and recurrent expenditure. Those commitments have not been fulfilled.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The motion is that the papers be printed, whereas the amendment is that one of the papers not be printed. The member is widely canvassing government policy and should restrict his comments to the motion.

Mr HUMPHERSON: I was arguing that the paper should not be printed and that the public interest will not be preserved if it is. If it is printed, widely distributed and made available, that will not be in the public interest. The Government has ignored the wishes of the community. The commitments it made about water quality in Sydney Harbour have been ignored. If the paper is printed and widely distributed, that aspect of government policy will become entrenched. Over the last four years of its term in office the former coalition Government allocated $1.2 billion towards capital works improvements and infrastructure relating to water quality. This Government has carved that down to virtually nothing. [Time expired.]

Dr MACDONALD (Manly) [7.43 p.m.]: The motion proposes that certain papers should be printed. The amendment seeks to omit the report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal on the pricing of backlog sewerage services remaining with the Sydney Water Corporation. Standing Order 307 allows for an amendment to the motion and one could not possibly support an amendment without giving a reason for it. Members on the Opposition benches have expressed concern about the wet weather tunnel from Lane Cove to Manly, and have asserted that no opportunity has been given for proper debate of the issue in the House. We have an opportunity to rectify that shortcoming.

As the member of Parliament most affected by the activities of Sydney Water Corporation, I seek to make a number of comments. However, I am restricted to three minutes and would be disappointed if that time were to be abbreviated. The justification for this engineering solution is totally flawed. It is the result of political pragmatism based on Olympic mania. The quick fix has been employed throughout the history of Sydney Water. I emphasise that $400 million is about to be spent on a paradigm which has persisted for 100 years, a paradigm based on transporting sewage and disposing of it on the doorstep of my electorate.

I have grave concern about the cost benefit of this proposal. Middle Harbour, the body of water closest to the peninsula electorates, will improve in water quality if the tunnel is constructed. However, that improvement will be achieved by a reduction of the number of unsafe swimming days from 22 to 15, and there will be at least two major events during the year when there will be pollution. I do not believe that justifies expenditure of this amount. Finally, construction of such a tunnel will have enormous local impact on my electorate, especially in the Little Manly area. Work will continue 24 hours a day for 18 months, and 500,000 cubic metres of sandstone will be extracted. There will be 4,000 barge movements, each barge being two-thirds the size of a Manly ferry. The tunnel should be abandoned and alternatives pursued.

Mr THOMPSON (Rockdale) [7.46 p.m.]: I move:

That the question be now put.

Mr Hartcher: On a point of order. The motion moved by the honourable member for Rockdale is not within the competence of the House at this time. Standing Order 307(5) allows a period of 30 minutes for debate.

Mr Whelan: The standing order uses the word "may".

Mr Hartcher: Accordingly, it is not within the province of the honourable member for Rockdale to move his motion until a period of 30 minutes has expired. Therefore, the motion is out of order.

Mr Jeffery: On the point of order. Standing Order 307 is specific and clear. The Leader of the House is incorrect in claiming that the standing order says "may". It states that the Speaker may call
Page 717
the Minister in reply if the debate exceeds 30 minutes. It is now not quite 7.50 p.m. -

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Gaudry): Order! The operative word is "may". There is no point of order.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.

Mr RICHARDSON (The Hills) [7.49 p.m.]: The Opposition opposes the Government’s proposal to print the Sydney Water Corporation report, for the reasons outlined by previous speakers. The Government has not fully represented all the facts relating to a tunnel that will carry more sewage out to the ocean. I was a member of the Joint Select Committee upon the Sydney Water Board that the honourable member for Manly chaired for approximately 18 months under the previous Government. Committee members had a lively debate about the value of not just maintaining but enhancing the pipe-based technology that has served Sydney for the past 100 years. Committee members felt that other options needed to be explored. Prior to the last election, the Labor Party complained about the amount of sewage that was being pumped into the Pacific Ocean and promised that the Carr Government would introduce water recycling alternatives to reduce reliance on ocean outfalls. What did we get? Another tunnel so more sewage effluent can be pumped into the Pacific Ocean.

Mr Langton: On a point of order. It is clear that members of the Opposition are prepared to flout the standing orders and to debate issues that are not relevant to whether the paper should be printed. Mr Acting-Speaker, I ask you to draw the attention of the honourable member to the standing orders. He should address the substantive motion.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The member will not extend the debate; the question is that the paper not be printed.

Mr RICHARDSON: Yes, I understand that. I am giving the reasons why the paper should not be printed. I do not think I have said anything untoward in that regard. It is obvious that the Minister is trying to seek some sort of publicity to make up for his appalling faux pas earlier today.

Mr Hartcher: It was good television.

Mr RICHARDSON: Yes, it was. Why did the Government make this decision? There was no transparent and open consideration of the tunnel proposal; a deal was done in a back room; a hand-picked group of four people of the Waterways Advisory Panel -

Mr Whelan: On a point of order. Mr Acting-Speaker, you have ruled on a number of occasions on the restricted nature of the debate. I refer you to Speaker Rozzoli’s rulings in this regard. The Opposition is wasting the time of the House on this issue. If it does not want parliamentary papers to be printed, the Government is happy to consider not printing them. The papers are published for the benefit of the community.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! No point of order is involved.

[Time expired.]

Mr FRASER (Coffs Harbour) [7.52 p.m.]: As I listened to the debate I read a memorandum of understanding that is relevant to it. It talks about the treatment of effluent on the north coast -

Mr Whelan: On a point of order. The honourable member for Coffs Harbour was not in the Chamber when you ruled earlier, Mr Acting-Speaker. This is a restricted debate about whether a paper should be printed; it has nothing to do with a memorandum of understanding.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Coffs Harbour will restrict his comments to whether the paper should be printed.

Mr FRASER: This is relevant on the basis that the paper will be printed and mislead the people of New South Wales, including those in the Coffs Harbour electorate. The Government is saying that it can have a tunnel that goes out to the ocean, put raw sewage in the ocean -

Mr Whelan: On a point of order. Mr Acting-Speaker, I ask you to ask the honourable member to resume his seat. He is defying your ruling. He is not entitled to conduct a wide-ranging debate. He can use other forums of the Chamber to canvass this issue, such as notices of motion and motions of urgency.

Mr FRASER: Further to the point of order. The honourable member for Manly canvassed the issues in this debate, which I believe I am entitled to do. The Opposition opposes the printing of the paper and must be allowed to outline why. There is a double standard. The people of Coffs Harbour -

Page 718

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The amendment relates to the printing of a paper, pertinent to the Sydney Water Board. Drawing an analogy wider than that is not within the leave of the debate. The honourable member will restrict his remarks to the specific question before the House; namely, that the paper not be printed.

Mr FRASER: The report gives the people of Sydney the impression that they can put raw effluent into the ocean. We are going to put that report into the public domain and tell people that is what should be done. That is wrong.

Mr Jeffery: What about Coffs Harbour?

Mr FRASER: In Coffs Harbour there is a double standard. [Time expired.]

Mr HAZZARD: I seek leave to suspend standing orders to allow me to speak again in the debate.

Leave not granted.

Mr Hazzard: Are you trying to hide something? The Government does not want the Opposition saying what it is.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member will resume his seat.

Question - That the words stand - put.

The House divided.

[In division]

Mr Hartcher: On a point of order. The Acting-Speaker, the honourable member for Newcastle put the question on the amendment and declared that the ayes had it. The Opposition challenged his decision and called for a division. It is not competent for you, sir, to take the chair and preside over a decision that you did not make. The only person who is competent to take the chair is the honourable member for Newcastle. In accordance with the convention of the House you should call off the division until the honourable member for Newcastle has resumed the chair.

Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Clerk has confirmed my belief that the Speaker has the right to take the chair on any occasion he chooses. On this occasion I shall remain in the chair. I would be happy to discuss the matter with the honourable member at a later stage.

Ms Allan Mr Markham
Mr Amery Mr Martin
Mr Anderson Ms Meagher
Ms Andrews Mr Mills
Mr Aquilina Mr Moss
Mr Clough Mr Neilly
Mr Crittenden Ms Nori
Mr Debus Mr E. T. Page
Mr Face Mr Price
Mr Gaudry Dr Refshauge
Mr Gibson Mr Rogan
Mrs Grusovin Mr Rumble
Ms Hall Mr Scully
Mr Harrison Mr Stewart
Ms Harrison Mr Sullivan
Mr Hunter Mr Tripodi
Mr Iemma Mr Watkins
Mr Knowles Mr Whelan
Mr Langton Mr Woods
Mrs Lo Po’ Mr Yeadon
Mr Lynch Tellers,
Mr McBride Mr Beckroge
Mr McManus Mr Thompson

Mr Beck Mr D. L. Page
Mr Blackmore Mr Peacocke
Mr Brogden Mr Phillips
Mr Chappell Mr Photios
Mrs Chikarovski Mr Richardson
Mr Debnam Mr Rixon
Mr Downy Mr Rozzoli
Mr Ellis Mr Schipp
Mr Fraser Mr Schultz
Mr Glachan Ms Seaton
Mr Hartcher Mrs Skinner
Mr Hazzard Mr Small
Mr Humpherson Mr Smith
Dr Kernohan Mr Souris
Mr Kinross Mr Tink
Mr MacCarthy Mr J. H. Turner
Dr Macdonald Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Merton Mr Windsor
Ms Moore
Mr Oakeshott Tellers,
Mr O’Doherty Mr Jeffery
Mr O’Farrell Mr Kerr
Mr Carr Mr Armstrong
Mr Knight Mr Cochran
Mr Nagle Mr Collins
Mr Shedden Mr Cruickshank

Page 719

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Amendment negatived.

Motion agreed to.

Debate resumed from 24 September.

Mr SULLIVAN (Wollongong) [8.11 p.m.]: It gives me pleasure to speak in the Address-in-Reply debate. I will not deal with all the points raised by the Governor in the Speech he delivered on 16 September 1997, but I will deal with those comments that referred to the Illawarra generally and to the Wollongong electorate in particular. The Governor said at page 2 of his speech:

New South Wales continues to lead Australia’s economic growth and business investment.

While the State has achieved the nation’s second lowest unemployment rate . . .

Notwithstanding that, the Government wants to continue to generate jobs and to address the question of youth unemployment, particularly in the regions. One body of thought tends to include rural areas in the regions. In my view, "regions" also covers the Illawarra, the Hunter and the central coast - major urban areas and important job generating areas on the fringe of the Sydney metropolitan area. I will refer to some of the decisions and projects for 1997-98 that were announced in the budget brought down in May 1997. As a result of that budget, of the order of 2,600 additional jobs will be generated in the Illawarra area this financial year. The Government is funding a number of projects that will continue that level of employment and generate other employment.

Services that were not available in the area in the past will be provided by the Labor Party in the future. Let me give honourable members a few examples. The $50 million Wollongong Hospital clinical services building is nearing completion; the outer structure of the building has been completed and the fit-out phase has been reached. Twenty per cent of people in the Illawarra who need health care currently go to Sydney for medical treatment and will now be able to be treated in the Illawarra, generally at Wollongong Hospital and, to a lesser extent, at Port Kembla hospital. The basic objective of that project is to ensure that no more than 5 per cent of Illawarra patients who need medical treatment have to leave the area for it. Some areas of specialisation can be justified only at a State level, and as Sydney is the hub of all activity in this State, logically those services will be provided there.

Each year many hundreds of Illawarra people still have to travel to Sydney to get elementary, standard services that should be available in their area. To that end we have seen the commissioning of a several million dollar second linear accelerator at Wollongong Hospital, a facility which was officially opened earlier this year by the Premier. People who were unable to be treated because of overloading on the existing linear accelerator, which was established at Wollongong, now do not have to go to Sydney; they can receive treatment in the Illawarra. The $25 million major redevelopment of an interchange between the F6 expressway, the Northern Distributor and Mount Ousley Road is continuing. This financial year $13 million will be spent on that major interchange bridge and associated roadworks. The capacity of the F6 from Gwynneville through to Ghost Bridge at Figtree will be increased from four to six lanes and sound barriers will be constructed.

Most of a $7 million allocation has been expended on a sound barrier program further south on the F6 to service the needs of those whose residences adjoin the expressway at Figtree, Mangerton, Mount St Thomas, Berkeley and Lindsay Heights in the Wollongong electorate, and Dapto and Mount Brown, which is south of Dapto, in the Illawarra area. That will greatly enhance the quality of life of those people. The previous Government refused to do anything about the sound problems in the area. The sorts of problems that those people have had to put up with for many years are now being addressed by this Government. People living in Phillip Crescent, Mangerton, were experiencing noise problems, and an associate professor was requested to take sound level readings. The sound levels in those homes were found to be extremely high, so much so that if similar levels had been recorded in a factory, its operator would have had to install a range of sound-deadening equipment and provide ear protection in accordance with occupational health and safety regulations.

Those people were living under appalling conditions, yet the previous Government said, "Because it is not a new expressway, we will not spend money on erecting sound barriers." This Government has reversed that irresponsible and socially unacceptable approach, and those people are now able to live in and enjoy the amenity of their homes without suffering from continual traffic noise from the expressway. A number of people who were
Page 720
badly affected in the past boarded up their front windows to try to deaden the sound. Some people enclosed their front verandahs and used them simply as a barrier against the noise coming from the expressway. This project is a major plus for those residents, and for the Illawarra generally. The entertainment centre which was promised by the former Government is now under way. For the information of honourable members, former Premier Greiner promised to provide an entertainment centre in the Hunter and in the Newcastle and Illawarra areas as a bribe to ensure that people in those electorates continued to vote for him at the 1991 election. It did not work.

Premier Greiner started to deliver in the Hunter - the entertainment centre at Newcastle showground was completed - but neither he nor former Premier Fahey delivered in the Illawarra. When this Government was elected to office it began that process and is delivering a facility that the Illawarra should have - one that will be a great boost to our tourist industry and will be of benefit to people there who currently have to go to Sydney to watch shows and other entertainment. Of course, that will mean more jobs in the Illawarra and a significant enhancement of quality of life in the Illawarra. It will be of benefit to anyone who attends functions in the entertainment centre and will ensure that the Illawarra Hawks remain in the National Basketball League. The National Basketball League had told the Hawks that if its facilities at the snake pit at Gwynneville are not improved it will be out of the league. So this decision by the Government guarantees that the Illawarra Hawks will continue in the national basketball competition and I have no doubt that one of these days the Hawks will take out the premiership for the Illawarra.

The Government has also recently announced another job generation and quality-of-life-enhancing initiative by providing $1.5 million for a recreational and small boat harbour in the outer harbour of Port Kembla. I pay credit to the work undertaken by Eric Ramsay when he was the local member from 1971 to 1984. He tried to get a facility so that trailer boats had access to a boat ramp in central Wollongong but nothing could be done. It was one of those problems that could not be solved and there never seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel. I pay credit to Carl Scully, the Minister for Ports, for taking the bit between his teeth and giving the inner areas of central Wollongong a major new initiative - a boat ramp and boat launching facility. This facility will also enhance access for small boats in the outer harbour, which is currently susceptible to north-easterly swells. While boat owners pay a lease for their boat site, they have to provide any facilities such as a walk-up to boats or a jetty. At the moment it is a depressing and makeshift harbour. The construction of good quality facilities will be a major boost to the Illawarra and a major enhancement to the quality of life.

Money continues to be expended on Lake Illawarra, particularly on its foreshore. In the present budget two-thirds of a million dollars will be provided and work is continuing on the lake foreshore in Windang. That work will tidy up some problems and also offer the opportunity for the Koori community of Illawarra to display their culture in a natural setting. The first stage of that project is open and another major stage will be constructed to the south of the present completed area. That will add to the tourism potential, the quality of life and the recognition of the importance of the Koori community’s culture in Wollongong.

Another major boost which provides direct job generation and increases the range of services is the increase in recurrent expenditure budgets for the area health service. I calculate that increase to have been 30 per cent-plus since the March 1995 election. All of the phoney, fraudulent, so-called productivity savings forced on the Illawarra Area Health Service in the seven long, dark, barren years of the Greiner and Fahey governments have been turned around. The area is starting to get the services that it deserves and which the first area health service board, of which I had the honour of being the chairman, worked hard for during the 1980s. Today a range of services is being provided for the first time and the money is there to pay for them.

Last of all in terms of job generation and increasing and enhancing the range of services is the commencement of the construction of the new $1.1 million fire station at Warrawong to replace the antiquated fire station at Port Kembla. I was at the site yesterday morning and it was a pleasure to see the construction crew clearing the site in preparation for the laying of the foundations. All of those job generation activities will benefit the Illawarra. They will generate jobs, provide extra services and increase the quality and standard of services for the benefit of Illawarra residents. A major boost to the area has been the 2,600-plus jobs from the 1997-98 budget. It is difficult for the members opposite to comprehend how constructive, positive and forward thinking this Government is in meeting the needs of an area of the State that was much neglected by the coalition Government. They sat on the backbench
Page 721
and on many occasions were shamefaced by the decisions that were made.

Major potential increased activity through Port Kembla harbour is currently being considered by the Ministers involved with the Rail Access Corporation and the Port Corporation. In the not too distant future I hope that a major announcement will be made that will lead to a significant boost in the throughput of goods on Port Kembla harbour. There is also potential for a major increase in jobs in the private sector with the designation of an ecopark at the old power station site at Tallawarra. When it comes to fruition the park will be a major boost to broadening the area’s economic base. As members are aware, over the decades the Illawarra tended to be a BHP company town and we paid a high price for that narrow economic base. In decades past BHP guaranteed prosperity but it also left us vulnerable when BHP decided to significantly shed jobs during the 1980s.

No matter how much the Government does, the private sector has to pull its weight. One of the areas of concern in the Illawarra is that the private sector is not following on those developments by providing encouragement to the local community with an expansion in manufacturing. The Governor referred in his Speech to the environment, and one project that I have been very keen about is the permanent creation of a national, regional or special park which would preserve the catchment areas of the Nepean dams and the Illawarra State recreational area. [Extension of time agreed to.]

All of this is a revelation to the members opposite. They are ignorant about what is happening in their own State. It is important that I take the time to slowly explain these things. Having been a teacher, I have learned to speak slowly and repeat myself because there is always someone who never quite understands what is said the first time. In terms of the park, the Wollongong City Council has been engaged in an activity called fair trading with land-holders who have land on the escarpment and escarpment face. By an arrangement with the council, land or area that is crucial for the preservation of the escarpment can be donated or quarantined. I pay tribute to the work of many volunteers from industry, landowners, community environmental activists and the staff of Wollongong City Council.

From the national park in the north to the Macquarie Pass park in the south land-holders have agreed - it is all signed and sealed - that areas of the escarpment should not be developed. The council has traded in the sense that it has indicated that it will look favourably on proposals for additional subdivisions in the lower areas of properties which will not impact upon the visual amenity. As a member of the Public Accounts Committee last week I flew to Perth. I was astounded at how much the range to the east of Perth has been desecrated by unrestricted urban development. What could have been a green backdrop to the Perth coastal plain in many areas is totally developed as residential subdivisions with no amenity. Quarries are in full view of the major urban areas south-east of Perth. This could have been avoided, to the advantage of Perth, but it has been lost.

Fortunately in the Illawarra the escarpment has been saved. Establishment of the park is the answer to preserving for future generations the great beauty of the Illawarra - the beaches, the narrow coastal plain, the rainforest and the beautiful green escarpment providing a backdrop to the urban areas. Within five minutes from anywhere in Wollongong one can be in the bush, in the rainforest. We have been fighting to preserve that asset. I think we have managed to do it but I would like to take out a little insurance that the situation will not be reversed. Creating a special park or regional park will guarantee preservation of the area.

The Governor stated in his Speech that this is a caring government. It cares about ordinary people and it is concerned to ensure that people’s lives are improved as much as possible. On pages 3, 4 and 5 of the Governor’s Speech seven issues demonstrating the Government’s caring nature are mentioned. The first is the Government’s delivery of unprecedented growth in health-care funding over three successive budgets. Spending is nearly $1 billion more than it was when the Government was elected. Secondly, the Government will introduce legislation for a comprehensive reform of the health-care system. This is crucial to ensuring that residents anywhere in New South Wales have the best health system anywhere in Australia - hopefully anywhere in the world.

Thirdly, the Government will shortly finalise its program to improve services for people with disabilities - again, an area much neglected by the previous Government, which took a very Philistine view towards people with disabilities, to the extent that it was ashamed to be associated with them when they returned victorious from the Paralympics. That attitude has not existed with this Government. We intend to improve services for people with disabilities. Fourthly, the Government intends to uphold and strengthen the public education system. It could be said that in the view of the previous Government private education was pre-eminent and
Page 722
State education was provided for young people who could not afford private education until they were eligible to leave school. They were seen as being expendable. That is not the view of this Government. The reforms of public education that will be announced and legislated will make sure that public education is something of which we can all be very proud.

Fifthly, the Government will introduce a youth policy to improve services to young people and to increase their opportunity to be involved in decision making. People of my age - I do not regard myself as old - were not concerned about getting a job in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. It was assumed that people leaving school could get a job. The only people who did not get a job were those who did not want a job. Now many young people desperate for work, desperate to establish themselves in the work force, are simply unable to get a job, for the simple reason that there are not enough jobs for them. Society has to face that issue and make sure that all young people finishing their education enter an environment in which they can get a job if they want one. That should be our aim. That is not the present situation. While the State Government cannot direct the Federal Government, we should influence the Federal Government to create such an employment environment.

Sixthly, as part of the action plan for women the Government will establish a council on violence against women. The report released by the pay equity task force will be the basis of future action to ensure that women are justly rewarded for their work as compared with men. Seventh is the important matter of continuing the process of reconciliation of the Koori community with the general community. We have started down the path but there are many paces still to go. The Governor was truthful in stating:

Recent Federal Government decisions exert increasing pressures on the State Budget.

He listed some of them. They include direct cuts in Commonwealth funding and the decisions taken by Commonwealth bodies which deprive the State of revenue or compel the State to incur unplanned but substantial increases in expenditure. This country is being run by a socially irresponsible Federal Government. All its members are concerned about is looking after themselves and their immediate backers. They are not concerned about looking after this nation and doing what is in the best interest of the overall community. The Federal Government has totally withdrawn funding for dental services. Many elderly or disadvantaged people will have to put up with dental conditions which are totally unacceptable in the last few years of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Community services cutbacks are a disgrace. The Governor stated in his Speech:

General purpose payments to the State were reduced as a result of the requirement at the 1996 Premiers Conference that States make fiscal contribution payments to the Commonwealth to help cut its Budget deficit.

That is a reference to the State’s budget deficit, not the Commonwealth Government’s budget deficit. The Governor continued:

In real terms over the three years from 1996-97 to 1998-99 this will mean a reduction of $529 million.

In its 1996-97 Budget the Commonwealth announced the imposition of so-called "efficiency dividends".

We have been down that track before. We know all about productivity savings in the New South Wales health system. Productivity savings and efficiency dividends involve just cutting, slashing and burning - denying services to people who should be getting them. The Governor’s Speech continued:

These effectively cut a range of Federal specific purpose payments, including some for social welfare.

These "efficiency dividends" have had a great impact on the people of New South Wales. They have, for example, resulted in cuts of $31 million in public housing and at least $7 million in vocational education and training.

These unilateral decisions by the Commonwealth have not only put heavy burdens on State Budgets, but have placed unprecedented strains upon the Federal system itself.

It is about time Little Johnny Howard -

Mr Fraser: You mean the Prime Minister?

Mr SULLIVAN: No, Little Johnny Howard. If he were doing his job he would be the Prime Minister, but he is Little Johnny Howard because he is not doing the job. Fundamentally, he is trying to apply his dry, hard-nosed, uncaring, unsympathetic, callous, economic rationalist approach, so that those who are the least powerful and the least able to look after themselves have to suffer in order to make his life and the lives of his supporters easier. [Time expired.]

Mr JEFFERY (Oxley) [8.41 p.m.]: This Address-in-Reply debate is taking place only because the Premier, and no-one else, prorogued Parliament. We had to go through all the costly pomp and ceremony mid-term because the Premier wanted to trot out for the public of New South
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Wales what they are paying for, and of course he got His Excellency the Governor to read a speech that I suspect was prepared by Treasury. Despite the cost to taxpayers, we are now going through the motions of the reopening of Parliament. Funds would have been better spent on services - something that has disappeared from the agenda of this self-serving Government. In his Speech His Excellency the Governor said:

You have been called together to consider the Government’s key legislative and policy proposals . . .

Mr Fraser: They gave nothing to Coffs Harbour hospital.

Mr JEFFERY: What about Coffs Harbour hospital? Six beds were closed there recently. As the honourable member for Coffs Harbour says, we could very well ask what is in it for our country electorates? I welcome the provision - mainly from the Federal Government - of $1.2 billion for rural and regional roads, particularly for the Pacific Highway. But, apart from that, there is little joy in the Governor’s Speech for anyone who lives outside the city. This State Labor Government has not done anything constructive for rural New South Wales. Now it will try to abolish six country seats, to try to get rid of country representation and to make way for larger urban Labor constituencies. The Government is trying to rort the boundaries. When I was first elected to Parliament I had something like 46,000 electors, but the member representing the Balmain region had 28,000 electors. Talk about one vote, one value! It is always a rort under Labor. My constituents have seen no evidence of Labor’s promise of job security, social justice and/or financial responsibility.

The Government has identified its core responsibilities, as set out in the Governor’s Speech, namely, health, education, transport and police services. Well, they have all copped a hiding in the bush. The commitment to developing the natural resources of the State is a joke. What has the Minister for Land and Water Conservation done? He has virtually shut down the timber industry. He has locked up the forests and he has put in limbo a further 691,000 hectares of valuable resource. Where is the economic security in that? Just today he tabled papers relating to the cost of water. One can only imagine that the price of water will go up, and that will kill off the irrigators. The honourable member for Coffs Harbour referred to the Coffs Harbour hospital. What has the Government done there?

Mr Fraser: They promised it in 1994.

Mr JEFFERY: And nothing has happened. Where is the social responsibility for health care in this State? Whole wards at Kempsey District Hospital have been closed and Wauchope District Memorial Hospital is struggling under budget constraints. A few years ago the Federal Government made its position with regard to dental funding very clear. Dental treatment is a State responsibility and the Federal Government provided three years additional funding before handing that responsibility solely to the State. Now the wait for dental treatment in Kempsey is years. The constituents of Oxley have been turned away in pain. There are no funds, there are too many on the waiting list and the situation is critical. The mid-north coast health area now has three dentists, compared with the previous compliment of five. There are no physiotherapy facilities at Macksville hospital. Whilst it is acknowledged that it has been difficult to recruit additional physiotherapists to rural areas, many patients come from outlying areas and often they make the journey only to return home without treatment. That is just not good enough.

Promised ambulance services have been shelved. The ambulance station at South West Rocks has still not been built. I received an iron-clad guarantee from the coalition when it was in office that the station would be built, but Labor has put that much-needed facility on the back burner and it will be some time yet before that occurs. The Nambucca Heads community raised funds to build and pay for its own ambulance station. The expected South West Rocks ambulance station commencement date is still some time away, despite a windfall. Only a month or so ago the Government received a windfall when it sold a block of land in South West Rocks owned by the health service for $570,000.

Mr Fraser: What did it do with the money?

Mr JEFFERY: Well, it says it is going to help to go towards a new ambulance station, but let us get it started. The Government has the money. The block of land was paid for by the people of South West Rocks, who raised the funds to buy it in the first place -

Mr Fraser: And this mob has stolen the money.

Mr JEFFERY: I would not go that far because I am a pretty nice sort of fellow. However, the sale provides more than enough to give the people of South West Rocks the security of an ambulance station, and I believe construction should
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start now, not after next year’s budget. If it is not started after next year’s budget, I assure the House there will be a riot in the bush.

Mr Fraser: They can’t sell the electricity.

Mr JEFFERY: Well, where is the money coming from? Whilst on the subject of health, concerns have also been raised about the closure of wards in Kempsey hospital. A couple of weeks ago a "ward closed" sign was placed on the children’s ward at the hospital. My constituents fear that this is a sign of further cuts to health services in the Kempsey-Macleay area. The wonderful hospital auxiliary at Kempsey has raised many thousands of dollars over the years to provide services at the hospital, and they are now seeing these services closed or downgraded, and that is very sad indeed. Next Sunday a large public meeting is planned at South West Rocks to highlight the difficulty of getting doctors to work in country areas. At the moment country doctors are overworked. Many work seven days a week and are on call virtually 24 hours a day.

The recent campaign by the State Government to recruit doctors to country areas has not worked. We must look positively at the alternatives available to entice doctors to rural New South Wales. This involves an examination of the immigration laws, as well as the policies of the Australian Medical Association and the Federal Government. If city doctors will not move out to country areas, we have to get qualified doctors from overseas. At the moment they are permitted to stay in Australia for only two years, but that period should be extended to five years, provided they sign a contract to stay in country areas. That may go part of the way towards addressing the problem, but it needs to be addressed by the Federal Government, the State Government and even local government so that doctors have an incentive to work in country areas. Access to health services is a right and not a privilege. Country hospitals are now underresourced. Who can blame the doctors for not leaving the city when they cannot get proper resources in the country?

The Minister has slashed operating hours in rural hospitals, making it an unattractive option for doctors to base themselves in the country. Rural hospital working conditions must be improved to attract doctors from the city. The Chamber of Commerce at South West Rocks has stated that the number of doctors' surgeries has dropped from three - one with two doctors, one with three doctors and one with one doctor attending each afternoon - to two. I know this to be the case because I live in that area. One of the doctors is leaving the two-doctor surgery at the end of 1997 and the remaining doctor has said he will close his surgery if he cannot find a replacement. There has been a massive drop in the number of doctors. The majority of the people in the region are retired, having moved to the area from all parts of New South Wales. There are insufficient medical resources for the current population.

Everyone needs to work together, including government and the community, to find a way to encourage doctors to come to country areas. The mid-north coast has a large ageing population because retirees are moving to the area and that calls for action. Not enough doctors are available to service these people, who use medical services four times more frequently than younger adults do, and that is the reason for the heavy demand on them. Though doctors cannot be forced to move to the country, incentives should be given to encourage rural practice. This also demonstrates a need for the return of the hospital board management system, where the community previously had a voice. However, it no longer has a voice at the local level or access to information about staffing and services.

The Minister has stolen the local voice from the rural health service at the local hospital level. I nominated members on the hospital board and even people who voted against me. I nominated them because, apart from their politics, they were committed to health services and did an excellent job. However, the hospital boards were abolished. I did not mind who was a board member provided they did a proper job. Board members were informed of what was required, but now it is a closed shop, a secret service, where information is unavailable and people become suspicious. Though people may not like what they are told, if they are told the truth they will at least respect the members and accept their decisions. Rural waiting times are at an all-time high and staff morale is probably the lowest I have ever known. Nurses are overworked but still do a tremendous job. Assistance should be given to health care professionals. Six beds have been lost from Coffs Harbour and District Hospital and many constituents from Urunga and Nambucca Heads have expressed their concerns.

[Interruption]

Mr DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Oxley needs no assistance from the honourable member for Coffs Harbour. In spite of his advancing years, the honourable member for Oxley is capable of making his contribution on his own.

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Mr JEFFERY: I think I am about the same age as you, Mr Deputy-Speaker. I hope you are also retiring at the next election because younger people are needed in Parliament. Another matter of concern about which the Government has made a big song and dance is the erosion of services in rural New South Wales. This has been manifest in the transfer of fisheries officers from South West Rocks and Nambucca Heads. The Minister for Fisheries had the audacity to suggest that fisheries offices are still operating when the doors only open one day a week. The fisheries officer from Nambucca Heads was transferred to Coffs Harbour. However, he did not go there, so I do not know who is doing the job. The officer from South West Rocks has apparently gone to Port Macquarie. He is not even acting as a fisheries officer but is dealing with acid soil areas in the Ballina area, which is an important issue. However, I would like to know which fisheries officer is taking his place. In a letter dated 21 January the Minister advised:

I can assure you that there is no proposal to close Fisheries offices at South West Rocks or Nambucca Heads.

The Minister is playing with words. Services are needed where the fishing is. South West Rocks and Nambucca Heads have the oyster industry, amateur and professional fishers and thousands of tourists each year, yet no fisheries officers. Fisheries officers and services should be available but instead services are being scaled down.

Mr Fraser: That is very clever.

Mr JEFFERY: It is very fishy to me, but it amounts to a scaling down of services to amateur and professional fishers and that is not acceptable. The Minister for Transport was recently at the table but he has left the Chamber in order to try to make up for the bad press he received on television tonight and to put his dunce’s hat back on. Rail services are of concern to me. Many people have written to me about this matter. Not all of them voted for me. They are former supporters of the Labor Party - I received only 65 per cent of the vote. I have received stacks of letters about the luggage services and cloakroom that David Hill and the Government want to close and, in particular, the elderly are concerned about luggage handling.

At half past seven this morning I took my father to Central station so that he could travel to Albury by XPT. I witnessed first-hand elderly people boarding the train. As my father is close to 89 years of age I carried his luggage and put it on the rack. Yet without luggage services how can elderly people be expected to carry their luggage? We have a social obligation and responsibility to the elderly and those unable to carry their luggage. The Government needs to examine this matter closely; it will ignore it at its own peril. I received advice that State Rail proposes to close the luggage room at Central railway station on 20 October. This will affect Countrylink and XPT passengers in my area and elsewhere in New South Wales. To their credit, the unions have stalled the issue, but David Hill, who was appointed by the Government and seeks a Federal seat for the Labor Party, has confirmed that 30 positions at Central station and 100 in country areas are under review. He stated:

The reforms were meant to cut costs and increase efficiency, while at the same time maintaining service levels.

What a backhanded statement! Is this double-speak for cost cutting? The State Government has a social responsibility to provide services to the people of New South Wales. I request the Minister, with all his present worries, to intervene and reject any proposals to cut Countrylink staff and services. I cannot understand why the Government is trying to take on so much in such a short time. When the coalition was in government a few things went wrong because it tried to do too much too soon. The honourable member for Port Macquarie, an excellent member and one of the younger members needed in this place, is also concerned about the future. [Extension of time agreed to.]

Police and community youth clubs play an essential role in rural communities, particularly where there is high unemployment and other socioeconomic problems. The Minister for Police has acknowledged the valuable services that the movement provides daily to thousands of young people throughout the State. In Kempsey the PCYC steering committee is concerned that the momentum of the local PCYC project has stalled. There has been much financial support but the community has yet to see the results of their endeavours. I am grateful to the Minister for seeding funds of $5,000. A truck was fitted out as a mobile unit and is ready to go, but a full-time police officer must be assigned to the project to ensure its success. The arrangement was for a constable from Kempsey police station to be attached as required, along with a permanent attached officer under the PCYC movement, building up to two permanent officers, as they have at Port Macquarie, but that has not eventuated. Any member who wishes to see an excellent PCYC should go to Port Macquarie because it is outstanding. It would be a shame if all the good work and the community support the program has received were put at risk. I ask the Minister for Police to staff this worthwhile program, before the
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review is completed, so we can try to cope with the pressures of juvenile law and order.

More police officers are needed in the Kempsey, Hastings and Nambucca areas. People in my electorate should feel safe in their homes and on the streets. The police are working hard under extreme conditions. They are under a lot of pressure and suffer from stress. A lot of police officers are ill and are either on short-term or long-term sick leave. Those police officers are exercising their rights under occupational health and safety laws, but they should be replaced if they are on sick leave for more than three months. These police officers are not on the beat, which makes it hard on the other police officers, which in turn places extreme pressure on them.

Many people in my electorate are yet to be convinced that the Olympics will do anything for them. I support the Olympics. However, the Minister for the Olympics must reveal any hidden liabilities that the Labor Party has added to the original Games bid. The Government should provide timely and comprehensive information on the full cost of the Olympics to New South Wales taxpayers. The Auditor-General has said that he wants to look at the books. I do not want to look at the books; if the Auditor-General is satisfied, I am satisfied. The process has to be open. The Auditor-General should be able to look at the books to ensure that all is well. There is a lingering perception that the New South Wales public faces an unexpected financial liability because of the construction of the Olympic stadium - a liability that was never part of the original Games planning. It was supposed to be built and paid for by private enterprise.

The Carr Government has not come clean on any changes that it has made that may create risk for the taxpayers. Perhaps that is why we have not got our new courthouse at Macksville; perhaps that is why the honourable member for Bathurst is complaining about what is happening in his electorate. I am becoming sceptical about this. I call on the Minister to lay the cards on the table - only he knows the true story. He has to ensure that public confidence is retained for the Games. It is time he told us everything he knows. New South Wales taxpayers are the shareholders and they need to know what essential government services - whether of a recurrent or capital nature - have been deferred or cut as a result of the Olympic priorities. We have to know where it is going. If people cannot get a hospital bed, their teeth fixed, transport into town or a decent education for their kids, they will be pretty unhappy with the situation. People in rural New South Wales believe that they have been ignored. The Government should not forget the little people. I have always fought for my constituents - the little people - because they are least able to help themselves.

A recent report to the Federal Government on regional employment warned governments on regional office closures. The report suggests that Federal and State governments should assess the total economic impact of decisions to close regional offices and not just the savings to a single department’s budget. The report found that flow-on economic benefits from the closure of regional offices could be up to double the direct impact, and suggested that governments find a method to weigh up these across-the-board impacts against the immediate savings from the closures. These closures have an impact on services such as health, education and police. Therefore, the net losses may well outweigh the gains.

I refer to the Carr Government’s complicated Children (Protection and Parental Responsibility) Act, a concept initiated by the previous Government and trialled in Orange and Gosford. The Government has tried to have it repealed. The Government wants to water it down. The Government talks tough when it comes to law and order, but it does nothing. I challenge the Minister for Land and Water Conservation to introduce just terms compensation for private land sterilised by a blight. The imposition of controls such as wetlands and conservation agreements over private land should be compensated. The introduction of a State environmental planning policy by a government that changes the nature of land use in a way that leads to a decrease in value of the land or loss of income because the land can no longer be used in a particular way gives rise to compensation.

Mr Yeadon: You cannot plant crops on a wetland.

Mr JEFFERY: The Minister could not plant anything. I invite him to a farm -

Mr Yeadon: I can never find you when I am out there.

Mr JEFFERY: The Minister does not have the courtesy to tell me or the media when he is coming. He is scared of demonstrations, which is his own fault. There is currently no obligation on the Government to acquire or compensate for land affected by State environmental planning policy. Farmers should be compensated for the loss of potential income from uncleared land on their properties. For example, SEPP 46 - which prevents
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farmers from clearing land for agricultural production - does not include provision for compensation for land-holders affected by it. Legislation is necessary to apply to future decisions - I am not suggesting that it be retrospective - to ensure that governments take into account such factors, including compensation costs, when determining use and possible restrictions applicable to private property. That is a way to get confidence back into the rural community. Private members' days must be upheld by the Government to protect the rights of all members of Parliament. The Government has tried to ram its agenda through this place. The Parliament is for all members, not just for Ministers. Finally, there was no need for this Address-in-Reply debate. If the Parliament had not been prorogued we would not have had to go through the pomp and ceremony and the cost involved in opening this session of Parliament.

Mr DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Order! I acknowledge the presence in the gallery of Mr Mike Carlton and Mr Steve Chase and their staff. The cream of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is with us.

Mr ROGAN (East Hills) [9.09 p.m.]: I congratulate the Governor on his Speech, which outlined the Government’s programs for this session of Parliament. I join the Governor in his expression of sympathy to Prince William and Prince Harry on the loss of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, whose life was cut short in tragic circumstances in Paris not long ago. I was particularly touched by the number of my local constituents who called at my electorate office to sign condolence sheets which were made available by the Premier’s protocol staff. I join the Governor in extending my sympathy on the death of Mother Teresa and to the families and friends of victims of the tragedy which occurred at Thredbo on 31 July.

The Governor highlighted the impact of Federal Government cutbacks to the State’s finances and programs, and in particular to the shameful manner in which New South Wales and Victorian taxpayers are required to subsidise other State taxpayers. That is a $1.3 billion impost on the people of this State. Accountability is essential for the Parliament, for government, for government agencies, for police, teachers and public servants, for the business sector, and for unions and non-government organisations which operate within our society. In retrospect, every decade is characterised by momentous events, public attitudes and lasting reflections. The decade of the 1980s was characterised by greed, by Gordon Gecko immortalised by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, by the rip-tear-bust attitude of business, by debt at any price, and by a complete lack of accountability.

We have not yet reached the end of this decade, but I will make some observations about what might be said by commentators, writers and philosophers, who will go into reflective overdrive when that milestone is reached. Certainly this decade will be known for responsibility and accountability. However, we have a little over two years to implement measures to ensure that one section of society - a very important one which hitherto has remained immune from the strictures of accountability, the judiciary - is made accountable. Legislation and regulation ensure controls over the groups I referred to previously. They are held to account by those to whom they are responsible and, at the end of the day, by our community.

I agree with the doctrine of separation of powers and with the importance of maintaining that doctrine, but the appalling saga which I shall now relate to this House is, I believe, one of the reasons for the strong community disillusionment, disenchantment and at times outright anger at the perceived arrogance and out-of-touch attitude that is increasingly being displayed by the State’s and nation’s judiciary. We are now facing a collapse in faith in our judicial system which is in danger of destroying the very fibre of our democratic society. Honourable members would be aware of my many speeches in this House as a result of which the media highlighted the injustice suffered by Chelmsford victim Barry Hart. Barry Hart was not only tortured in Chelmsford hospital, resulting in physical damage, brain damage and severe and chronic psychological damage, but has had to fight for justice and fair and adequate compensation for the wrongs committed against him for 24 years through what can only be described as the most oppressive, maleficent and inhuman treatment imaginable by the legal system.

Justice Michael Kirby, the then Chairman of the Law Reform Commission, said in 1983 that Hart’s story brought no great credit on the legal profession of this country. I now accuse the judiciary and the legal profession of this State of corrupting due process, of incompetence, bias and a conspiracy to deny Barry Hart natural justice. It is my duty to speak out about the appalling injustice that the legal system of this country has done to this man, a victim of the Chelmsford Private Hospital hellhole. I cannot remain silent when an innocent man has been destroyed by our so-called justice system.

Page 728

Honourable members may be familiar with the ABC television program run by senior barrister Stuart Littlemore called Media Watch, in which he pans the media for inaccurate reporting. Who watches the courts? Who judges the courts? Judges should not attempt to rewrite history. Court judgments are public records and as such must accurately record the evidence and facts upon which judgments are based. Court transcripts must also be true and accurate records of evidence given in court. The Hart case is an indictment of this country’s legal system. The innocent victim in this case is destroyed and the guilty go free. It is a disgraceful state of affairs.

There is no doubt that Barry Hart was tortured in Chelmsford. He has had all the symptoms of severe, chronic, post-traumatic stress disorder, and has had them since his unlawful detention and abuse in 1973. He was not medically diagnosed as suffering from this debilitating psychiatric illness until 1993. Indeed, Mr Hart was seen on national television being carried from the New South Wales Court of Appeal on a stretcher on 6 June last year after it had completely denied him justice and dismissed his appeal with costs - the same Court of Appeal that had in 1986 stopped disciplinary proceedings against Dr Herron for misconduct by claiming that Hart was persecuting Dr Herron and had allegedly abused the process by delaying making a complaint to the medical board. Dr Herron was a leading doctor in the deep-sleep treatment at Chelmsford.

Mr Hart was taken to Sydney Hospital by ambulance, where he had convulsions in a bed in its casualty ward, reliving the abuse he suffered in Chelmsford. The shock of the decision and finding himself in a bed in a hospital brought about this reaction. The abuse he suffered in Chelmsford is as fresh to Mr Hart as if it had happened only yesterday. Mr Hart has received no legal recognition and no compensation for this serious illness. At the time of the 1980 Hart v Herron trial, post-traumatic stress disorder was not a recognised psychiatric illness. Mr Hart appealed the 1980 trial verdict on damages, claiming that the amount of damages awarded was grossly inadequate and that exemplary damages which were withdrawn by the trial judge, Justice Fisher, should also have been awarded. He had received a jury verdict against Dr Herron for false imprisonment, assault and battery and negligence, and against Chelmsford hospital for false imprisonment.

After refusing to consent to any treatment, Mr Hart made a request to see Dr Herron, whom he had not seen for two months. He told a nurse he did not intend to stay at the hospital and was given a tablet on the pretence that it would settle him down. It knocked him out. He was strapped down and kept sedated for 10 days with massive amounts of barbiturate in toxic and potentially fatal doses. A current of electricity was blasted into his brain on six occasions by Dr Herron. Whilst being subjected to this abuse Barry Hart became cyanosed through a lack of oxygen in his blood. His temperature rose to 39.9 degrees, his respiratory rate increased from 16 to 50 breaths per minute, and his pulse rose to 150.

He went into shock, was incontinent of urine and faeces and suffered double pneumonia, pleurisy, deep vein thrombosis, a pulmonary embolism, anoxic brain damage and severe and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. For the false imprisonment Mr Hart received against both defendants the total sum of not $1 million dollars, not even $100,000, but $6,000. His out-of-pocket legal expenses, none of which he recovered, were more than that amount. He received $18,000 for the repeated assaults and batteries, which was taken by legal aid. It now claims that Hart owes it $150,000 in costs. He received $36,000 for past and future loss of earnings.

Hart had never been unemployed since leaving school. Before Chelmsford he ran a gymnasium at Coogee Beach for 13 years, was a professional model, and had just graduated as the best student in an acting course at the New South Wales Arts Council. He had been told by his teacher to continue his studies in New York with one of the world’s best acting teachers, Stella Adler. He bought with his savings a home unit at Bondi Beach, land at Surfers Paradise and new motor vehicles. The Chelmsford injuries made Hart virtually unemployable. He now lives on a disability pension. Appeals by Dr Herron and Chelmsford wanting a new trial - they also claimed that the damages were excessive - and cross appeals by Hart on the amount of damages awarded and an adverse cost judgment which deprived him of over half the costs of the 1980 trial followed the jury verdict. There were 48 appeal points against the trial judge, Justice Fisher, including failing to adequately address the jury on how to assess damages.

Justice Fisher took the view when addressing the jury that Hart’s treatment was an unfortunate minor incident that had resulted in no permanent damage and that the trial was a waste of time and money and of limited importance. He took issue with three independent medical specialists who had all diagnosed brain damage, but he made no comment about the fact that Dr Herron could not get one medical practitioner in the world to go to court
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in his defence. Justice Fisher brought down a judgment in the absence of the jury, preventing the giving of evidence by witnesses to whom Mr Hart had complained bitterly over and again about being tricked into taking a knock-out drop and being treated without consent.

After Justice Fisher had excluded the evidence as being prejudicial he became an advocate for the defendants and invited the jury to consider in their deliberations the fact that Hart had allegedly not complained to anyone about being tricked or held against his will. He frustrated Hart’s barrister’s attempt to have a witness for the defendants - who claimed that Hart had given an alleged oral consent to the treatment - identify Hart in court. He made Hart stand up and come forward so that witnesses could identify him. Mr Paul Bacon, a former jury member at the 1980 Hart trial, contacted me in recent times. The concerns that he outlined to me include:

1. The jury sat for nearly 4 months with complex evidence to consider and yet it was expected to reach a verdict within six hours.

2. There was no mention of any time limit when the jury retired to consider its verdict and some jurors had, on the final day of summation, brought sleeping attire with them believing that they would have days if necessary to consider their verdict on all matters concerning damages.

3. About 4 hours passed before an officer of the court came into the jury room to inform them they would be dismissed if they did not reach a verdict soon.

4. As a consequence the foreman had the time limit confirmed by the trial judge and as a result considerable disbelief and panic occurred resulting in a totally inadequate amount of damages being awarded.

That statement was made by Mr Bacon, a person who served on the jury. He also said:

5. The jury were also guided by the judge informing them that any moneys would be paid by the defendant and not by his insurance and that they should ignore Mr Hart’s barrister’s estimation of loss of earnings as being unrealistic and that they must be guided by his direction.

6. The jury was understandably confused. Despite evidence from 3 medical specialists that Hart had suffered brain damage and despite the fact that the defendants had called no medical witnesses the judge told them that Hart was physically healthy and not particularly brain damaged.

7. Had the jury known about the criminal conduct in the trial by the defendants that came out of the Royal Commission and the evidence of the psychological damage I feel quite sure that had they been given the opportunity to do so the jury would have awarded astronomical damages.

The juror, Mr Bacon, believes that his good faith has been abused. He is utterly disillusioned by the legal system and he wants the Hart case corrected. The jury foreman, the late Ray Ratcliffe, also recorded the fact that the jury was underbriefed, was pushed for time and had little idea how to work out damages. Updated medical examinations and reports have confirmed that Hart suffered brain damage and severe chronic post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the treatment he received at Chelmsford. Armed with this damning evidence from the $15 million Chelmsford royal commission which found:

1. The defendants had conspired to pervert the course of justice.

2. Altered and forged an unsigned consent form on two occasions to hide from Mr Hart’s solicitors and their own insurance company the fact that they had not received a written consent to treatment from Mr Hart.

3. That Dr Herron had deliberately lied about his knowledge of the alteration of the consent form.

4. That Dr Herron had threatened one of the eye witness nurses to the conspiracy-that she would "hang along with them".

the New South Wales Court of Appeal, in a disgraceful decision, chose to ignore this vital evidence. Honourable members might rightly think that the evidence from the royal commission tends to show at the very least prima facie evidence of the most serious criminal conduct. Certainly Justice Slattery thought so in his report. Not so Justice Priestley who wrote the judgment in the Court of Appeal which described the evidence in the royal commission - which I might add included the sworn evidence of eye witness nurses, the sworn evidence of police forensic expert Detective Sergeant Alt, copies of the forged document and the evidence of Dr Herron from the 1980 trial. He described this evidence as only supporting a conclusion that Dr Herron acted badly in 1977 in concert with others when dealing with a situation where no written consent to the appellant’s treatment was available at a time when questions were being raised about the treatment. [Extension of time agreed to.]

Justice Priestley went on to say:

Evidence of concealment of the lack of written consent and of conduct designed to create the impression of written consent having been given in the regular way does not seem to me to be evidence of consciousness by Dr Herron of no consent at all having been given but at most consciousness of no written consent not having been given and of the difficulties that might follow the unavailability of that best and readiest means of proof.

What kind of judicial nonsense is that? The evidence before the court also included the fact that Dr Herron had deliberately lied about his knowledge of the alteration. Justice Priestley said that all that had
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happened was that this doctor had acted badly. It appears that the New South Wales Court of Appeal was in a bind. In 1986 it had permanently stayed proceedings against Dr Herron arising out of evidence from the 1980 trial on the grounds that Hart had allegedly abused the process by delaying lodging a complaint with the investigating committee of the medical board for three years after the 1980 trial. Despite the fact that Dr Herron had appealed wanting a new trial following the jury verdict, despite the fact that he tried to get the Attorney General to take contempt of court proceedings against Hart and 60 Minutes; and despite the fact that Dr Herron had sued Hart and Channel 9 for defamation, the New South Wales Court of Appeal claims that nothing happened following the trial, that "silence reigned" after the trial and that it must have been "a cruel blow" to Dr Herron to have received Hart’s complaint when he thought that the events were behind him.

The matter of the abuse of process was heard in the first instance by Judge Ward of the disciplinary tribunal. After a two-week hearing in June 1986 in which both Hart and Dr Herron gave evidence, he found that there had been no delay by Hart. Judge Ward quoted the continual litigation between Hart and Herron in support of his findings. Although the Ward judgment was before the Court of Appeal, there is no mention of Judge Ward’s finding in its judgment. The judgment was written by Justice Michael McHugh, and Justice Priestley and Justice Street agreed. After permanently staying disciplinary proceedings on the totally spurious grounds that nothing happened after the 1980 trial, along comes a royal commission with evidence of the most serious criminal conduct by the defendants.

The Court of Appeal was placed in the position of not only having to judge the same matter twice; Justice Priestley was in the position of judging his own previous decision. In order to allow Hart to succeed in his appeal he and the Court of Appeal would have had to overturn his own previous judgment. Not only had the court before it evidence of serious criminal conduct; such behaviour by a medical practitioner I believe would have constituted the most serious professional misconduct. The legal and political fallout from such a decision would be great, hence I believe the nonsensical decision that evidence of criminal conduct is, in the court’s view, "acting badly". Justice Priestley at the very least should have excused himself and stood down from hearing the case. The Court of Appeal dismissed Hart’s appeal with costs. It also claimed that it had read the transcript and the evidence and could find no error in the trial judge’s conduct.

On 10 April this year Hart applied for special leave to the High Court. The written submission to the High Court summarised the abuse Hart had suffered in Chelmsford, including his unlawful detention at the hospital and treatment without consent. It claimed, among other things, that the evidence from the royal commission proved that a false case had been presented to the court in 1980 by the defendants and that, as such, a miscarriage of justice had occurred, which was reflected in the amount of damages awarded. Also it claimed that the Court of Appeal had failed to properly, or at all, address the compelling evidence from the royal commission and the untenable forensic position of Dr Herron at a new trial on damages and exemplary damages. Listed in the submission was all the evidence of the defendant’s criminal conduct and the witnesses who could be called to prove the case.

The special leave application was dismissed with costs on the grounds that it would be "a serious erroneous exercise of the court’s authority for it to allow Mr Hart to pursue exemplary damages so long after the trial". It is an outrageous decision considering that the evidence of the criminal activity did not see the light of day until the royal commission in 1990, and Mr Hart has been continually engaged in litigation with Dr Herron ever since the trial ended. The High Court has placed its seal of approval on medical practitioners being sued for malpractice to alter and change medical records to hide their culpability, to tell lies under oath about their knowledge of such alteration and to engage in long and protracted legal proceedings, such as appeals and defamation actions that are never proceeded with, to delay the truth from being discovered and justice being done.

What is going on? There is obviously something very wrong. I have received letters, statements and statutory declarations from persons who were present at the High Court proceedings on 10 April which indicate that the High Court was biased and had no intention of granting Hart special leave. These documents claim that one of the three judges on the bench - and I am led to believe that it was Justice Toohey - said in the most intimidating tone of voice to Mr Hart’s counsel during his oral address, "Is this a case about punishing a doctor?" There was no audible reply but there was audible murmur in the court from those who were present.

The written submission which the bench claims to have read left no doubt what the case was about. The witnesses claim that from the tone of voice it appeared that the bench had already made up its mind and that it disapproved of the case.
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However, the question does not appear in the High Court transcript. After receiving eye witness accounts and a copy of the transcript I wrote to the registrar of the court pointing out that I had been informed by my constituent Barry Hart that the transcript of the hearing was not correct and that it was important that court transcripts should be correct and accurately recorded. In my letter of 9 May to the registrar I said:

My constituent, Mr. Barry Hart, the appellant in the case has informed me that the transcript of the hearing is not correct.

It is the clear memory of Mr. Hart and others who were present and have made statements (copies enclosed) that a direct question was asked to Mr. Hart’s Counsel by one of the judges on the bench - it would appear that it was Justice Toohey - the question being:

"Is this a case about punishing a doctor?"

The question does not appear in the transcript.

It was apparently asked early in the proceedings and was reported on by the press and heard by persons attending court.

I am led to believe that the proceedings were tape recorded and I would be pleased if you would provide me with an unabridged copy of the tape.

I am sure that you would agree that transcript evidence should be correct and what is said accurately recorded.

I very promptly received a letter from the Chief Executive and Principal Registrar of the High Court of Australia. I will not read the whole letter. He said:

There were no omissions. In your letter you refer specifically to one of the judges making reference to punishing a doctor. There are in fact two places in the transcript where a reference to punishment occurs. First, in lines 14 and 15 at page 9 . . . Second, lines 7 and 8 at page 12 . . . A copy of the audio tape of proceedings is enclosed.

I now make the most serious assertion in this Parliament that one can make of the highest court of this land. That is that this is simply wrong. The High Court has either doctored the transcript or the audio tape and, if that is the case, the High Court of this land has lied to a member of Parliament of this State. I consider that is the most serious matter that I have ever raised in this House in all of the time that I have been a member here. I am now going to refer to the House a number of statutory declarations made by people on oath who were present on that day. I start with one by television ABC journalist Geoff Sims, who states in his statutory declaration:

I attended a High Court appeal in Sydney on 10th April 1997 in the case of Hart against Herron.

I sat in the third row of the Press seating.

I recall hearing one of the judges ask a question in these words, or very similar: Is this a case about punishing a doctor?

The question was apparently addressed to Mr Hart’s counsel in regard to the claim for exemplary damages against Dr Herron, but may have been addressed to the fellow judges. The judge asking the question sat on the left of the Chief Judge, Sir Gerard Brennan - in other words, from where I sat, he was on my right.

I remember the incident clearly. I discussed it with several other witnesses afterwards. We all had similar recollections.

The tone in which the question was asked led me to conclude that the judge was suggesting that punishing a doctor should not be contemplated.

And I make this solemn declaration, in accordance with the Oaths Act, 1900, and subject to the punishment by law provided for the making of any wilfully false statement in any such declaration.

I have a whole lot of other statutory declarations which I could read to this House but time does not permit me to do so. But I am pleased and happy to provide them to anyone in this House who wants to pursue them. This is an absolutely serious matter when the High Court of this land has lied to a member of Parliament taking up a matter on behalf of his constituent. Why has the High Court lied? I believe it is clear evidence of bias. I regret the conclusion that must be drawn that judges talk to each other. Justice McHugh, who was on the appeal court when dealing with Barry Hart’s case, was a High Court judge and perhaps talked to other judges. Justice Priestley, who sat in judgment on Hart in early 1986 and sat in judgment again on Hart’s appeal in 1989, should have excused himself from the court, as did Justice Kirby when he heard a case against Hart in the appeal court because he had written to Hart when he was heading up the law commission in this State.

This is a very serious matter. I believe it does show clear bias. The only way that justice will be satisfied, that I believe the public will be satisfied in this case, is if this case is revisited. I have asked that of the Attorney General in a written submission that I have made to him. In summing up I say this. Justices McHugh, Priestley and Street in 1986 claimed that nothing happened following the 1980 trial, that silence reigned, that it must have been a cruel blow to Dr Herron to receive Hart’s complaint in 1983 when he thought the matter was behind him. Nothing about the problems of Mr Hart; they were ignored. They ignored the evidence before them from Justice Ward, who found that there had been no delay on Hart’s part because of Dr Herron’s appeal, Hart’s court appeal, the defamation case against Hart and Channel 9, and the writing to the Attorney General regarding 60 Minutes. In 1996 the
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appeal court had heard Hart’s appeal, including the new evidence from the royal commission which the royal commission said could constitute charges under the Crimes Act and which counsel assisting, Brian Donovan, QC, called criminal and evidence of the guilty mind.

Of course, now, in light of the appeal court, the judge has heard the same matter twice and rejected exemplary damages. Hart has really not received proper justice. Dr Herron could have been struck off for such conduct. How could all of this be found when they stayed permanently the proceedings based on completely spurious fiction that nothing had allegedly happened in the Hart case after 1980? These are serious matters and I believe they are matters that go to the heart of the public confidence in the court system. [Time expired.]

Mr ARMSTRONG (Lachlan - Leader of the National Party) [9.39 p.m.]: In speaking in reply to His Excellency the Governor’s Speech I note first that the Carr Government has finally recognised that the State of New South Wales has developed an endemic illegal drug problem under Labor administration. The recognition was tardy. After all, it has been a full month since the National Party pioneered a new and comprehensive strategy on drugs. I am tempted to say "too little, too late" when I discuss this Government’s mishandling of the illegal drugs issue. While it has certainly been too late for the severe addicts who have died of overdoses in the past months of inactivity by the Carr Government, I will not undermine what little confidence the community still has in law and order in this State by saying that it is too late for all of us.

But I will not let Bob Carr off either, because unless the pressure is kept on the Premier he will just continue his world championship record in navel gazing. Without pressure from the National Party, Bob Carr will just continue to wallow in self-pity. So what recommendations from the Nationals is Mr Carr going to adopt? He nominated tougher gaol terms for drug traffickers and dealers, a government-funded education program to warn young people of the dangers of illegal drugs, and rehabilitation measures for addicts. The proof Mr Carr must now supply to the public is to do rather than to talk.

Let us first examine the tougher sentencing option of the New South Wales National Party. Bob Carr says that the courts are not handing out tough enough sentences. The New South Wales National Party agrees. The difference is that he is the Premier: he can do something more than pay lip-service. He can and should immediately introduce legislation to put major dealers and traffickers in drugs away for a minimum of 50 years - with no excuses of broken homes and weak character: do the offence, go to gaol for half a century. It can be done. Other nations in our region already do it. Mr Carr would have the support of the Nationals to do it, if he could find some backbone. If the laws are not tough enough - and they are not - he should make them tougher. That is what New South Wales taxpayers pay him for: to do his job; no more, no less.

On an education program to warn young people about drugs, Mr Carr’s Government can immediately allocate funds for such a worthwhile purpose. Tonight a drug forum was held in the Parliamentary Theatrette. Speaker after speaker - including the sister of a young female who died last year after taking ecstasy tablets at a school function - called for proper education, not just the lip-service that the Government has been paying. Mr Carr could immediately find $75,000 by taking back that sum of money he gave earlier this year to the small homosexual community in Sydney to run a travesty of sport called the Gay Games. That amount would provide a healthy kick-start for a schools-based drug education program. That is a far more acceptable use of the money than Mr Carr and Treasurer Egan gave it for - a publicly funded junket to allow a delegation of prominent Sydney homosexuals to holiday in San Francisco on the pretext of winning business for New South Wales.

Rehabilitation is the third point picked up by Mr Carr from the Nationals, but again he needs to take further action. He has not specified what rehabilitation measures he may introduce, nor what funds will be found to operate them. This is an example of Mr Carr deliberately turning a deaf ear to sound advice. The Nationals have recommended a New South Wales trial of the Israeli rapid detoxification method as a likely central platform of any rehabilitation project. The National Party is the best qualified to speak on this recommendation, because it is the only party with a member who has bothered to see the process first-hand in Israel. I refer to Mr Bill Rixon, the member for Lismore. The National Party is the only party that has bothered to have public meetings to assess what the public wants on drug control measures. The National Party is the only party that has made an effort to research the issue, to talk to the victims of drug-related crime and the families of drug addicts.

The National Party knows that the Israeli method pioneered by Dr Alex Waismann is both effective and cheap - surely a viable prospect for any government to consider. The only other aspect of the New South Wales Nationals’ drug strategy Mr
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Carr has not stolen is the idea of assisted employment to get recovering drug addicts back into normal society. There is a good reason for Bob Carr not picking up this idea. His Government, this Government, has been unable to maintain anyone’s job, let alone create jobs for people who need them desperately. Today the jobs are literally flying out of New South Wales. The Boeing Aircraft Corporation - the firm known the world over for the jumbo jet, a company that has operated here for 60 years - has had enough of Bob Carr’s ways of doing business. Just weeks ago Boeing announced that its 250 Sydney jobs are going elsewhere. They are not ordinary jobs; they are highly specialised jobs for some of the best technologists that the world has. Like many other companies, Boeing is going to Queensland and taking those specialist people with it.

Not just jobs but also vital high-level technology has been lost in the Boeing debacle - technology identified as the future economic saviour of Newcastle when BHP closes down there in 1999. The New South Wales economy cannot afford to lose these jobs. Yet Mr Carr has let Boeing slip away. That sends a most negative message to other high-tech firms such as British Aerospace, which will build aircraft in the Hunter thanks to the forward planning and hard work of the Federal coalition Government. It is ironic that the Federal coalition has a better idea of industry needs at ground level. It is normally the preserve of a State government to be most aware of local needs. But the Carr Government has no idea of what is happening outside this House in the real world.

The Carr Government knew more than a year ago that BHP would eventually cut jobs in Newcastle. Yet in that same region lies the potential for a vast new shipbuilding industry, an industry that should have flowed on naturally from the minehunter project, which was so successfully established by the former New South Wales coalition Government. Armed with the early knowledge that BHP would close up, did Bob Carr take an order book and head off to Asia to win orders to build more ships in the Hunter? After all, the minehunter project has shown that New South Wales can build vessels of world-class quality. But no. Mr Deputy Speaker, you can read for yourself the Government’s speech, cover to cover, but like the work of fiction it is, it cannot reveal a new shipbuilding order - not one new order. But such orders do exist. Two days ago the Malaysian Government announced plans to have six patrol boats built. There is not a skerrick in the project for New South Wales, but Germany, on the other side of the world, got the whole job. How come, Mr Premier? With the world’s most modern shipyard in Newcastle and a proven track record in building military vessels, how come?

The Government cannot get business even when it is handed to it on a plate. The Governor’s Speech does not mention the Boeing fiasco, nor the dozens of firms suffering financially just because they chose to operate in New South Wales. However, in the Speech there is an incredible claim, an extraordinary claim, that the Carr Government has allegedly created favourable conditions for business investment in New South Wales. Some conditions! The highest workers’ compensation conditions in Australia, making it prohibitive to employ workers in any industry; and the highest payroll tax burden in Australia, again penalising people who want to give jobs to unemployed people.

In Cowra in my electorate - a town better known for winery and other primary production - there is a growing furniture export industry. There are now three family furniture businesses in Cowra each supplying export markets. In total, this trifecta of factories provides the best win for 92 Cowra people - steady jobs. Country towns such as Cowra grab opportunities when they can. They combine loyal, skilled work forces with entrepreneurial spirit and away they go. What is stopping these factories from employing 900 people rather than 92? The answer is simple: punitive payroll tax. Whenever a family business or any other small business attempts to grow, it is slammed by the heaviest of tax burdens. It is insane that in New South Wales an employer is punished with higher and higher tax for every new job created. Meanwhile, our manufacturing rivals Queensland and Victoria know that business needs fostering: they offer tax breaks and other incentives to get people into employment.

But even crippling payroll tax is not the end of the Carr Government’s punishment of the business sector. The hat-trick is this State’s bizarre anti-dismissal laws, which deter even the keenest employer from taking a chance on an unknown prospect. In New South Wales an employer will receive no help at State level if he endeavours to create a job - but God help that employer if someone already on his payroll has to be let go. The average small businessman will go broke trying to defend himself against an unfair dismissal claim in New South Wales. The message to employers from the Carr Government is: we will kill you financially if you try to employ anyone and we will hit you
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again if you dare to try to stop employing anyone. Bob Carr robs employers, coming and going.

The economic suffering caused by the Carr Government’s poor administration is worst in primary industry. The Government has claimed it will develop the natural resources of the State to lift rural productivity. But in my electorate, the Lachlan Valley, farmers are being made scapegoats for the environmental lobby. Without any scientific or environmental evidence, Lachlan Valley farmers have been forced to give up 100,000 megalitres of their water entitlements for the environment, plus a further 30,000 megalitres. That means a massive loss in farm production, hardship for the shops in the towns of the Lachlan Valley, and a potentially firm no from the bank when any Lachlan Valley farmer tries to get a loan to develop his farm and provide a better standard of living for his family. The scene is repeated to varying degrees across every farming valley.

The Premier was shortsighted when on 22 July this year he announced a new inland marketing corporation policy. He was shortsighted when he tried to rally support for the IMC, which embodies the concept of an international freight export terminal at Parkes in central western New South Wales. Yet at the same time, although the viability of that whole process is dependent upon an increase in horticultural production in the Lachlan Valley, his own Ministers are curtailing, cutting back and contracting the basic element of productivity in the Lachlan Valley - water. On the one hand he seeks to announce the glamour and extrapolate a dream for the future of increased productivity and of accessing the burgeoning markets of Asia to arrest Australia’s declining market share in Asia, but on the other hand his own Cabinet colleagues - and I guess they report to him - are restricting the capacity of farmers to respond to that demand and to the vision of an inland marketing corporation with an export abattoir at Parkes.

It is a ridiculous contradiction in terms, and indeed it reflects the Premier’s incapacity, first, to understand what is going on with his own Cabinet Ministers and, second, to appreciate that one cannot have productivity without water being available at a realistic price if one is to be profitable and increase the share of agriculture being marketed to South-east Asia. That is what the Carr Labor Government calls water reform. But water is a resource to be used. It is there to be used by city residents, to sustain the environmental needs of watercourses, and also to be used in farming. The former coalition Government knew all of this, and it ensured that every sector received a fair allocation of water. The division of water by the coalition was always based on scientific data and expertise.

This Labor Government, however, wants all water locked up as if it were a museum exhibit. It is yet to make a decision based on scientific proof, and that is the Achilles heel that in practice will drag down its water policy. The Government’s so-called water policy has been predicated on the continuing fraud of adequate community consultation. The Government has given the bush virtually no time or actual avenue to pursue any attempt at consultation. The deception is continued by the Carr Government with its repeated claims to be conducting rural community impact statements before it makes decisions on cutting railway staff, department branch offices, TAFE funding and rural road funding - all matters that you, Mr Acting-Speaker, have raised at various times publicly in your disgust with your own party.

To this day, Mr Carr is yet to publicly reveal one of these alleged documents, and the reason is dishonesty. I believe that these documents, which Mr Carr vowed to reveal at the country summit, have never been revealed. Where are his rural community impact statements on the regressive policies that his Government has embarked upon since March 1995? They simply do not exist, and I challenge Mr Carr to prove otherwise. The Minister for Roads, Carl Scully, admitted to the estimates committee earlier this year that country districts will lose millions of dollars in road funding this financial year compared with last year. Bourke, in the far west of the State, with one of the highest incidences of crime against the individual, will lose $6 million, which means that road infrastructure development in the west will be wiped out.

Dozens of other districts also fare badly. Harden, in the south-west of the State, will lose $1.5 million; Lismore, on the north coast, will lose $2.5 million. Lismore, of course, is adjacent to the seat of Clarence, where, we are told, the new Minister for rural decentralisation, Mr Woods, comes from. Yet the Government is ripping $2.5 million out of that area. The Blue Mountains, the electorate of the Minister for Emergency Services, will lose $1.9 million; Narromine will lose $3.1 million; Inverell, in the north-west, will lose $1.4 million; Gosford will lose $1.7 million; Cooma-Monaro, in the cold country in the south-west, will lose $3.6 million; Cowra, in my electorate, will lose $6.2 million; and Ballina, on the north coast, will lose $3.7 million. The list goes on. It must be remembered that these are the figures provided by Mr Scully’s office. Wagga Wagga will lose $4.4 million; Muswellbrook will lose $4 million; Tenterfield will lose $3.6
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million; and Holbrook will lose $1.1 million. Country districts simply cannot absorb this level of road funding and still have a sufficient standard to ensure general motorist and road freight safety.

Be it the rural constituency, the home of the increased growth in terms of mining, timber, agriculture and, hopefully, value adding, or be it an inner city suburb such as Paddington - and I welcome the Paddington branch of the Liberal Party to the gallery tonight - which is now in the centre of probably one of the most recognised real estate areas in the world, one of the fastest growing price areas, one of the highest demand areas that we have seen -

[Interruption]

Mr ARMSTRONG: Indeed, it could be a future National area. There is no doubt that this Government is letting down both the inner city suburb of Paddington and country areas such as Tibooburra, Narromine and Monaro.

Mr Beck: What about Murwillumbah?

Mr ARMSTRONG: And Bathurst, Vaucluse and Murwillumbah as well. Be it daylight saving at Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads, road rage in Vaucluse, or public transport for Paddington, this Government has failed the test of the people.

[Interruption from gallery.]

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Clough): Order! If the people in the gallery interrupt, they will be removed.

Mr ARMSTRONG: We must appreciate the feeling that is in the community, which tonight has been reflected by the people in the gallery. They feel so strongly that they have come to the Parliament to demonstrate the passion they have against the Labor Government deserting them. This Government stands condemned in the bush and in the city by the Left and the Right. The ultimate condemnation came when about 850 delegates at the ALP’s annual conference last weekend rejected the Premier and the Treasurer - something that has been unknown in the history of this State. And they rejected the Government twice! They rejected it on electricity and on the parental responsibility Act. The Government has been rejected by its own members. It is divided, and it is trying to grab hold of the last threads of political presence in this State. The ALP in New South Wales was torn apart by its own members when 850 faceless, non-elected delegates controlled the Government and booed the Premier of the State out - something unprecedented in the history of this State.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! On behalf of the honourable member for Vaucluse, Mr Debnam, I welcome to the Parliament members of the Paddington branch of the Liberal Party.

Mr HUNTER (Lake Macquarie) [9.59 p.m.]: It is my pleasure to join - [Quorum formed.]

I am pleased to participate in this debate. I should like also to make comments on the Governor’s Speech and to join with the Governor in expressing my sympathy and that of the constituents of the Lake Macquarie electorate to the sons of the Princess of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry. I arrived in London shortly following the death of the Princess and it was certainly a city of mourning. It was incredible to witness the outpouring of affection towards the Princess. Many of my constituents availed themselves of the opportunity to come to my office to sign the condolence papers made available by the Premier. The Governor also mentioned the passing of one of the world’s great humanitarians, Mother Teresa. Also in his Speech he said:

I extend in this place the heartfelt sympathy of the people of New South Wales to the families and friends of the victims of the immense tragedy at Thredbo on July 31.

I again pay tribute to the members of the police, rescue and emergency services supported by hundreds of volunteers. In circumstances of great difficulty and danger, they all displayed skill, endurance and courage above the call of duty - the Australian community spirit at its best.

The Government is committed to working with the people of Thredbo to help them rebuild their community, in the full sense of the word.

Last Saturday the Minister for Emergency Services, Bob Debus, visited the Lake Macquarie electorate and attended the official opening of the State Emergency Service local headquarters at Boolaroo. At that function I had the pleasure of introducing the Minister to the assembled SES workers. The Minister handed out certificates of appreciation from the Government to members of the State Emergency Service from Lake Macquarie who travelled to the disaster area at Thredbo to participate in the rescue effort. Again in this House I congratulate those people on their efforts at Thredbo.

The Minister was in the Lake Macquarie area to officially open the new fire control centre, to which the State Government has contributed funds. Also, he handed over keys to a new tanker for the Lake Macquarie reserve brigade and a new tanker
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for the Cooranbong bush fire brigade. I hope at the end of this week I will have the pleasure to travel to Cooranbong to present that community with a bushfire flag and to inspect the new appliance and upgrading of works taking place at the fire station. The Governor in his Speech outlined some of the Government’s objectives. He referred to economic growth, job creation, security, social justice, protection of the environment and financial responsibility. He said:

Within this framework, the Government is determined to meet fully its core responsibilities for the State’s health, education, transport and police services.

This was demonstrated in the May budget by the Government’s allocation to the Lake Macquarie area of vast sums to boost many of the projects sought for some time by the local people. When speaking to the appropriation bills I referred to the $3 million allocation towards the construction of Toronto courthouse, the $2.8 million allocation for the upgrading of Toronto High School and the allocation of in excess of $3 million to build the Westlakes polyclinic at Toronto. Funds in excess of $4 million have been allocated via the Roads and Traffic Authority for upgrading roads in the area and more than $4 million has been allocated to extend the Westlakes sewerage scheme to Cooranbong.

Certainly the restructuring of the Police Service has seen an increase in police numbers within the Lake Macquarie electorate. Morisset now has 24-hour-a-day police coverage, something the local community has long pushed for. At Toronto extra highway patrol officers have been stationed and that is good news. The police complement at Boolaroo will be boosted to almost 20 police personnel as Boolaroo is currently being upgraded to become the Lake Macquarie local patrol headquarters. This is good news for the Boolaroo, Teralba and Speers Point areas, which have pushed for an increase in police presence, which will now occur in a few weeks with the official opening of the new patrol headquarters. The Governor stated:

The Government has delivered unprecedented growth in health care funding over three successive budgets. The Government is spending nearly $1 billion a year more than was spent in the budget before we were elected. No other government in Australia has demonstrated such a strong commitment to providing better hospital and health care.

In the current year, all Area Health Services will receive funding increases, flowing from a $223 million increase announced in the May budget.

That certainly has flowed through to the Hunter region. Whilst in opposition I campaigned for increased funding for the Hunter Area Health Service. At that time it was estimated that the area was $16 million to $18 million underfunded, something which the former coalition Government admitted but did nothing to rectify. Certainly over the past few years under the Carr Labor Government and under the stewardship of the Minister for Health, Dr Refshauge, the Hunter Area Health Service budget has increased by over $16 million, that is, $16 million more in real terms to spend on health in the Hunter region. Much of those funds will go towards community health. Approximately $5 million will be allocated to the construction of the Westlakes polyclinic at Toronto. The Governor said also:

The Government will uphold and strengthen the public education system of New South Wales. It repudiates any attempt to downgrade or denigrate public education.

The Government is determined to improve student literacy. This financial year, funding for the State Literacy Strategy will rise by nearly 20 per cent to $59.8 million.

As I pointed out in debate on the Appropriation Bill and as I mentioned earlier, Toronto High School is undergoing a multimillion dollar upgrade. The school was damaged by fire in 1994 and a $2 million rebuilding program was undertaken. The Government is fulfilling an election commitment and is further upgrading the school, making it capable of catering for 1,000 students. Close to $4 million is now being spent on new blocks for art, computer and general learning areas, a new food and technology area, and buildings for major projects in technology and applied studies. When that project is completed early next year Toronto High School will be able to boast that it is one of the most modern high schools in the Hunter region. The Government is putting its money where its mouth is and strengthening the public education system.

The school at Wyee is being upgraded. Country kit classrooms are under construction at the moment. The Minister has announced improvements to Arcadia Vale and Biddabah public schools, with new classrooms. In the past few years many millions of dollars have been poured into schools across the Lake Macquarie area to provide the excellent facilities deserved by students. Money is also being spent on computers and connections to the Internet, along with many other initiatives in the education system. The Governor also spoke about changes in the criminal law. He stated:

You will be asked to consider other changes in the criminal law.

A growing problem in our society is the use of knives as weapons. Measures are being drafted to strengthen safeguards and penalties.

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Legislation will be introduced to establish specific offences and penalties for food tampering and extortion.

The Government will introduce amendments to the Bail Act 1978 and the Correctional Centres Act 1952 to transfer certain custodial responsibilities from police to correctional staff. This will free police for other operational duties.

More than $4 million is being spent on building the Toronto courthouse. Under normal circumstances the police would have responsibility for the courthouse cells but, because of the changes taking place, those duties will be undertaken by personnel of the Department of Corrective Services, which will leave local police available for other operational duties. The Governor also stated:

The Government is strongly committed to the public transport system of New South Wales.

Rail services to Griffith and Broken Hill have been restored, providing a lifeline for the people of regional and rural New South Wales.

Services have been restored and in the past two years many improvements have been made to rail services in the Hunter region. With each timetable implemented an improvement to services has been made. Finally, with the trial of a stop at Fassifern, the city of Lake Macquarie has an XPT stop. The original six-month trial from February was extended, meaning that a full 12-month trial will take into account both summer and winter and the Christmas vacation period. It is my hope that the trial will demonstrate the necessity for the XPT stop and that the stop becomes a permanent feature, something senior citizens of the area have been pushing for some time.

In the past few years major improvements have been made to railway stations in my electorate. At Morisset significant improvements include the installation of lifts, canopies and closed-circuit security cameras and major landscaping work. The recent extension and raising of the platform will make for easy access to the trains for elderly citizens. A major upgrade costing more than $1 million has been undertaken at Fassifern. Access lifts and closed-circuit security cameras have been installed and other improvements have also been made. At Wyee, Dora Creek and Awaba minor adjustments have been made to improve railway stations. It is clear that the Government has improved public transport in the Hunter region, particularly on the western side of Lake Macquarie. The Governor stated:

The State Transit Authority in 1997-98 will purchase 145 air conditioned buses at a cost of $49 million. These buses will meet the standards set by the Disability Discrimination Act, featuring a flat floor and wheelchair access.

The State Transit Authority is upgrading safety for passengers and staff. Security cameras and protective screens for drivers are being installed in 200 buses to reduce violent behaviour and vandalism.

On Monday the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Roads visited the Hunter region to launch a new safety trial on government buses for young schoolchildren. We have all heard of tragedies in which students have alighted from buses and then run out into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The new initiative that is being trialed on government buses in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle will see the installation of a flashing 40-kilometre per hour sign on the back of buses. The sign is activated when a bus stops to pick up or drop off students, requiring passing motorists to slow down to 40 kilometres per hour. [Extension of time agreed to.]

The trial of the new initiative in the Lake Macquarie electorate will cover the Biddabah Public School and St Paul’s High School. I am delighted that part of my electorate has been included in the trial, which will take place from the end of this year into the first term of next year. I hope that the initiative, once proved successful, will be introduced across the State. The Governor said further:

The Government has a firm commitment to the road network in regional and rural New South Wales. The current budget provides more than $1.2 billion for rural and regional roads.

Nearly 70 per cent of the capital and maintenance program this year will be spent outside Sydney.

As I outlined earlier, more than $4 million is being spent on roads in my electorate. As recently as April last I announced the expenditure of a further $300,000 on safety improvements along Main Road 217. Most of the improvements were completed by July or August. A number of safety hazards along the road have been eliminated. Left-turn lanes and extra guard rails have been installed, dangerous electricity poles very close to the side of the road have been removed and several areas along the road have been improved.

On Thursday last the Minister for Roads visited my electorate and met several local community groups to discuss further improvements to Main Road 217. He met representatives of the Morisset Chamber of Commerce to discuss issues concerning the Morisset main street, being Main Road 217. He then travelled to Toronto to meet the Toronto Chamber of Commerce and discuss congestion problems. The Minister met representatives of environmental groups at the Toronto wetlands to discuss the proposal for a deviation through the wetlands and saw at first hand
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the difficulties associated with trying to construct a deviation through the wetlands. He received a request from the environmentalists that the Government consider seriously an alternative such as a western bypass of Toronto. The Government should consider that proposal before proceeding with a deviation through the wetlands.

The Minister travelled to Five Islands wetlands - an area between Teralba and Speers Point - which has become a major bottleneck on Main Road 217 because all the suburbs south of Speers Point join on to that road. There are long delays during the morning and afternoon peak periods. That section of road is in desperate need of upgrading. The landcare group with which the Minister met understands the needs of the road users in the area and has agreed to the road being expanded and the bridges being duplicated, so long as there is full consultation and as little damage as possible is done to the wetlands. I hope that the Minister undertakes to conduct an environmental impact study to ensure that minimal impact occurs to the wetlands when the road is constructed. If possible, the wetlands should be regenerated because parts of it were badly damaged when the original road was built. These days environmental factors are taken into account - that was not the case when the road was constructed some 20 years ago.

The Governor said that the Government will continue to balance resource development with the protection of the environment. I am glad that the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning is in the Chamber this evening. He knows about the balance between resource development and the protection of the environment. He has had a close hand in the approval of the expansion of the Pasminco Ltd zinc lead smelter which is located in the Lake Macquarie electorate. It was difficult to get a balance with the right environmental conditions placed on that upgrade to ensure that the local community, particularly the young children living near the smelter, was ensured of a safe and healthy area in which to live. However, we had to ensure that jobs and the economy of the lower Hunter area and Lake Macquarie were sustained by allowing that plant to continue. Many hundreds of jobs depend on the continuing operation of that smelter. The Minister required in excess of 50 conditions on that upgrade. I do not have the exact number in front of me.

In particular, the people of Lake Macquarie welcomed the condition that by the end of 2000 Pasminco must cease all effluent discharges into Lake Macquarie. No more heavy metals will go into the lake - no more lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury or selenium. Pasminco is initiating ideas and is pushing forward with them. It is building artificial wetlands through which it can filter its discharge water. Any discharge water that goes into Cockle Creek and down to Cockle Bay, which forms part of Lake Macquarie, will be almost fresh drinking water. This action will eliminate major pollutants going into Lake Macquarie. Other conditions placed on the company include meeting World Health Organisation standards for lead in air and SO₂ emissions. I call on the Minister to ensure that the company is forced to meet those conditions of consent and that the local community is a safe one in which to live.

Prior to the election the Labor Party committed itself to protecting many of the precious bushlands around the foreshore of Lake Macquarie. I congratulate the Minister for the Environment on declaring last November the Lake Macquarie State Recreation Area, which took in six parcels of foreshore bushland around the lake and established it as a State recreation area. This year she has allocated funds for the continued maintenance and development of the recreation areas. A local community advisory committee has been established that includes people who are interested in and have links to many of those parcels of land, such as the local councils and environment groups. The committee has met and put together a plan of management for the Lake Macquarie State Recreation Area. The Government is ensuring that the Lake Macquarie environment is looked after.

At the opening of Parliament the Governor outlined the Government’s plan for the forthcoming 12 months. Many of the things he outlined will directly affect the people of the Lake Macquarie electorate. I will work with my colleagues to ensure that many of the proposed legislative changes occur. Unfortunately, the Federal Government is hellbent on cutting funds to the States, as was mentioned in the Governor’s Speech:

Recent Federal Government decisions exert increasing pressure on the State Budget.

They include:

• direct cuts in Commonwealth funding; and

•decisions taken by Commonwealth bodies which deprive the State of revenue, or compel the State to incur unplanned but substantial increases in expenditure.

The Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, and Minister for Housing knows how the Federal Government has cut funds to housing, which has directly affected the number of Department of Housing dwellings to be constructed in the Lake Macquarie electorate. Many dwellings were on the
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drawing board and have been delayed or postponed because of the Federal Government’s cuts.

Mr Knowles: Funding is down by $200 million nationally over the next two years.

Mr HUNTER: That is a disgrace and I condemn the Federal Government for that. The waiting list for housing continues to grow in my electorate. The Government will do its best to ensure that those people are provided with accommodation. I congratulate the Minister on the work that he has done and the funding he has found for the neighbourhood improvement scheme in the Booragul townhouse area. I am working with that community to ensure that scheme progresses and that there is an improvement in that neighbourhood. The Commonwealth dental scheme has been abolished. In the Hunter area only half the number of people previously treated will be able to be treated. A fantastic dental scheme was running in the Hunter and it was cutting into the waiting lists. The dental
scheme has been abolished by the Federal Government and the waiting list will increase in the Hunter.

The State Government is putting money into that area, trying to cope with the difficulty. Unfortunately, the Federal Government does not believe it should fund a dental scheme. People in my electorate are being affected. I have received a number of complaints from those who cannot get dental services. The Federal Government has imposed these cuts on the States. Despite the cuts in funding by the Federal Government, there have been massive increases in health, increases in education, and increases in the police numbers in the Lake Macquarie electorate. The Government is also protecting the environment of Lake Macquarie. I commend the Governor’s Speech to the House.

Debate adjourned on motion by Ms Seaton.