Page 4546 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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MR DUBY: They were indecipherable last year, and you are aware of that. When the Government was asked last year as to what certain figures and tabulations in those estimations were, no-one could provide the answers. Time out was required for people to be able to understand the papers which were presented, as you are well aware. That is the basic line of it. I have never heard anything so foolish as to suggest that the Treasurer's Advance should be increased in line with CPI adjustments or anything like that. It is a set figure that is set at a level in terms of the budget overall.
MR MOORE (5.32): Mr Speaker, quite frankly, I am appalled at the suggestion of the Chief Minister that members had not read the budget papers. If he goes back through the Estimates Committee transcripts and looks at the amount of work involved and the questions that were asked - by me, Mr Connolly and many other members - he will realise that there is no possible way we could have asked them without - - -
Mr Wood: How many hours did you sit there?
MR MOORE: I am glad Mr Wood interjects to ask how many hours we sat, because, as I recall, it was something in the order of 64, I think - - -
Mr Jensen: Give or take a couple, Mr Moore, yes.
MR MOORE: Yes, give or take a couple. That was the actual sitting time, which has nothing to do with the preparation time, or the reading not only of the budget papers, Chief Minister, but also of the incredible number of other papers that were presented to us - which I must say I appreciated because they enlightened us in many ways. To suggest that the budget papers had not been read after having watched that process, I think, reflects much more on you than it does on the members from both sides of the house who put so many hours and so much effort into making that Estimates Committee as successful as indeed it was.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.34): I will make just a very short response to all of that, Mr Speaker. I quote from page 125 of the Estimates Committee transcript:
MS FOLLETT: What do the little brackets mean around those figures?
That was the former Treasurer.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Remainder of Bill, by leave, taken as a whole, and agreed to.
Bill agreed to.
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