Page 1921 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
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MR KAINE: If I took what you know and multiplied it by two, it would still be a lot less than what I know.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister!
MRS GRASSBY: I have a supplementary question. For how much longer will the Canberra community be forced to bear the cost of these empty buildings?
MR KAINE: Until the Government takes a decision to do otherwise.
Supplementary Commonwealth Funding
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Chief Minister. Is the Chief Minister aware that the Victorian Premier is seeking supplementary financing from the Commonwealth, and does the Chief Minister intend to request similar supplementary financing?
MR KAINE: That is a very interesting question. Yes, I am aware that Premier Kirner is approaching the Commonwealth for supplementary funding. It appears to be another case of a Labor State government that gets its finances into an appalling state, and then expects taxpayers throughout the rest of Australia - - -
Mr Connolly: A bit like New South Wales.
MR KAINE: Mr Greiner has not fronted up and asked the Prime Minister for any more money. What we are seeing is a procession of Labor leaders fronting up to the Commonwealth seeking more money. We saw Mr Field there a year or so ago and, of course, he was granted extra money. We now have Mrs Kirner fronting up, and I will be interested to see what the Prime Minister does when he is exhorting everybody to exercise financial restraint and to get on with micro-economic reform and get their houses in order.
The Labor Government in Victoria, of course, has created a situation down there that in any terms is quite horrendous. I would be interested to see Mr Berry, who is snickering and sneering over there, justify the position that the Labor Government in Victoria has got itself into. To front up and ask taxpayers throughout the rest of Australia to get them out of their jam, I think, is asking a bit too much. And what is coming out in Western Australia, of course, means that the Premier of Western Australia will be over here next, cap in hand, asking the taxpayers - - -
Mr Connolly: Do you want to tell us about Tasmania - bribery allegations?
MR KAINE: The Tasmanian Premier has been here already and he got $40m. He received $40m at a time when the Prime Minister and the Treasurer told us to go away. When we were asking for some support by way of transitional funding, we were told to go away.
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