Page 3822 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: I do not know what Mr Wood had for lunch, but obviously it does not agree with him. I am intent on getting a proper, decent and independent assessment of the Government's work on these questions and that is why I have referred the matter to Mr Hudson. I think he is more than capable of answering the sorts of questions that Mr Wood has asked. There is no doubt in my mind that the process the Government has initiated will throw up any inaccuracies or errors in the way in which we have calculated the figures in respect of school closures. If, as Mr Wood contends, he has found some loophole or some flaw in the Government's logic, I have absolutely no doubt that Mr Hudson's inquiry will show that, and I look forward to that being the case because I will be the first to admit that we have made a mistake somewhere.
I, however, believe that substantially the figures will be endorsed because the work has been done on them. I can assure Mr Wood that to the extent that it has not been done we will, of course, address that question. But the fact of life remains that those figures are being worked over and I believe they will be properly scrutinised. I can see a supplementary question coming on, but I will just say that it is not our intention to leave anything like that unassessed.
I do not know whether Higgins is one of those schools where there has been joint metering of watering costs or whether there have been contracts for cleaning or things of that kind which cover that school and other schools. If that is the case, of course, an attempt has been made to extrapolate the figures relating to Higgins from other schools or other facilities and the figures that were presented in that document that I have referred to already would already show that. If that is not the case, as I said, Mr Hudson's inquiry will certainly reveal that.
MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Wood?
MR WOOD: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Since you mentioned, Mr Humphries, that you expect that Mr Hudson will draw out any inaccuracies in the particular figures that have been presented, can you give the assurance that he will look at that as well as what I perceive as a more overall economic view of things? We want that close examination of figures as well.
Mr Kaine: You have seen his terms of reference, Bill. What more do you want?
MR HUMPHRIES: I must concede that the point made by the Chief Minister in that interjection is a very good one. The terms of reference that the Government has given to Mr Hudson indicate pretty clearly what it is he has to do. Although I have not a copy of them in front of me at the moment, I believe they do refer to the costings the Government has used to establish a savings figure from the closure of a number of primary schools and one high school
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