Page 4030 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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The Estimates Committee knew well, because we had been through it ad nauseam, that the stock or standard answer from the Government was that we had not identified the positions; there were 250 to be saved globally, and there was a process of consultation. To try to beat up this short passage, where we were talking about the lack of a need to have additional staff, and suggest that I have misled the Estimates Committee or the Assembly is a fairly pathetic attempt from an Opposition that has lost its way. It has lost its way on the Liberal Party side since Mrs Nolan left to form another party. You were clearly disorganised last week. You could not organise yourselves. It was painfully apparent to everyone. It was reported widely in the media and so, in your last desperate attempt, you are attempting to censure the Minister.
As I said earlier, to the extent that a person could misread my comments out of context, I apologise; but I say that a fair-minded person reading my comments in context, in the context of some three days at that committee, would see very clearly, as did Mr Jensen, at the time, from his follow-up question, that we were talking about there being no need for additional staff. At no point was any assurance given that there would not be a cut in any area; nor could such assurance be given because of the repeated answer that the process of identifying positions for saving was an ongoing one, subject to ongoing consultations with the unions. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this is a nonsense.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.20): This is not a nonsense, and Mr Connolly has been caught out. Mr Connolly has been caught out because he floats along like a duck on the top of the water, very superficially. His response to questions, generally, is superficial. He never subjects questions to any in-depth intellectual analysis, and he thinks he can get away with it. He says that we have never laid a glove on him. Well, today is golden gloves day.
He can weave a tapestry ranging across the whole of the evidence that he has given to the Estimates Committee - he can do that all he wants - but the fact of the matter is that his deception and his misleading focuses on just two small words; not on the whole of the processes of the Estimates Committee, but on two small words in answer to a specific question. That specific question, and I repeat it, was this:
Will there be any changes in the number of staff employed in the licensing related functions in the children's day care services section in 1991-92?
Mr Connolly said, "No, no". He now tries to change the nature of the question and he asserts that what Mr Jensen was asking was whether there was going to be an increase in staff. Mr Connolly asserts that what Mr Jensen was trying to find out was whether there was going to be an increase in staff. That was not the question.
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