Page 708 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 March 1991
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MRS GRASSBY: I am just asking you to watch your back, Chief Minister. Will you be providing supplementation to the Department of Education for the blow-out which Mr Humphries has admitted exists in the school closure program, or will you be imposing additional cuts in the public education system?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I am constantly confounded by members of the Opposition who keep talking about budget blow-outs and the like.
Mrs Grassby: That is what Mr Humphries is saying, and Mr Collaery.
MR KAINE: As I understand it, Mr Humphries was talking about additional costs that have accrued to the Education Department because of the acts of irresponsible people out there, like, for instance, preventing the removal of necessary equipment from one school and thus necessitating the purchase of additional equipment. I heard a member of the public on public radio the other day say that this was evidence of incompetence on the part of the Government. They picket the school; they will not allow the equipment out; the children suffer from the lack of that equipment; we have to go and buy more; and we are accused of incompetence. Well, you have a very strange definition of "incompetence", and I reject that entirely. The members of the Opposition, although they did spend a short time in government, seem to totally misunderstand - if they ever did know anything about it - the processes of the budget.
Mr Jensen: Remember the square brackets?
MR KAINE: Yes. During the fiscal year, or at the end of the fiscal year, if there has been any change in the projected rate of expenditure or if your revenues have not been quite up to what you expect, you may have to make an adjustment to your total budget. Bear in mind that these are called budget estimates. For somebody like you to sit there and say that because you estimated $190m for education and you actually spent $191m there is some gross inefficiency or incompetence is rubbish. It is absolutely absurd.
Mr Moore: What was your Minister doing on 15 November 1989?
MR KAINE: Am I carrying on a discussion with Mr Moore on this subject, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: No, you certainly are not, Chief Minister.
MR KAINE: We are constantly being asked these ridiculous questions. There seems to be some implication that the Government has absolutely no right to vary its estimates by one dollar - no right whatsoever - and that is totally absurd. The budget was changed during Rosemary Follett's
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