Page 2921 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 October 1992
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Mr Lamont: Madam Speaker, if it is just too difficult for the Leader of the Opposition to understand the papers he has in front of him, I will withdraw my motion. We will get the document another way.
Motion, by leave, withdrawn.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.31): Madam Speaker, I completely reject the motion that has been put forward by Mr Kaine today. It is my belief that the community can have every confidence in this Government and in each and every member and each and every Minister within this Government. The facts are that this Government set out to protect Canberra's neighbourhood schools. We needed to do that because of the attack upon those schools by the previous Alliance Government, an attack that had as its stated objective the closure of one-quarter of the ACT's schools. It was an attack for which the Alliance Government had no mandate whatsoever. It was an attack which, quite clearly and very visibly, caused the community the greatest amount of distress and which ultimately, in my view, resulted in the downfall of the Alliance Government. It is no wonder that they harbour a grudge to this day.
By contrast, this Government set out to protect those schools and, in fact, promised to undo the damage inflicted by the Alliance. Part of that promise was to reopen the Cook and Lyons schools. Immediately upon attaining government in June of last year, we set about doing just that. Madam Speaker, in looking at how the Government would reopen Cook and Lyons schools I, of course, took advice from quite a range of sources. I had before me from my Minister, Mr Wood, a letter containing some costings. That was by no means the only source of information that I had. Madam Speaker, my diary for the period shows that I met with the Under Treasurer on, I think, 7 and 13 June. There is no doubt in my mind that what we discussed was the forthcoming budget and the need to meet our commitments to deliver on our promises within a very tight budgetary framework.
Madam Speaker, I have certainly discussed with Treasury officials the cost of delivering on our promises. I do so throughout the year but, most notably, in the process of preparing for a budget. The basic thrust of Treasury's advice to me on the matter of reopening Cook and Lyons schools was that it should cost about what the Alliance Government had estimated would be the savings by virtue of their being closed - $520,000.
Mr Humphries: According to the department, it was not.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I hear Mr Humphries protest, and I can understand his protest, because the fact is that throughout the Alliance Government, throughout the sorry history of those school closures and the debate that surrounded them, we never got an honest answer from the Minister or any other member of that Government on just what the costs or the savings in the school closures program were.
Mr Humphries: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. In line with your previous rulings about what is parliamentary or not, I submit that the phrase used by the Chief Minister, "did not get an honest answer from the Minister", meaning me, is unparliamentary. I ask that you ask the Chief Minister to withdraw the statement.
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