Page 2932 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 October 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It said, "Listen, we have to go out there and make sure that we do not tell them that we are going to spend more than $600,000. How can we get it down from $890,000 to roughly $600,000? By conveniently putting $200,000 of maintenance cost into the normal education budget".
Mr Kaine: Somewhere.
MR DE DOMENICO: Somewhere. Then they have come out - - -
Ms Follett: And then not spend it.
Mr Kaine: How do we know? How do you know whether you spent it or not?
MR DE DOMENICO: That is right. Then they have come out and said, "Listen, it is going to cost only $600,000". We were not told of any initial document from Dr Willmot that said $880,000. We were not told about the fact that Mr Wood said to Ms Follett:
I will need early confirmation of the availability of funding. There will not be time to go through the normal New Policy Proposal arrangements ... I am seeking your agreement therefore that an amount of $890,000 be approved as a commitment against funding to be provided for new policy proposals in the 1991-1992 budget.
Although he was going to use the new policy proposal, he did not have enough time to go through the official channel or through the official process. He needed $890,000 quickly because this was what it would cost him to open those schools on 15 July. If he had waited to open the schools on 1 January or 1 February 1992, it would have cost only $530,000.
This debate is all about the political decision made by Ms Follett and Mr Wood, in my opinion, to deliberately mislead this house and to deliberately mislead the people of the ACT for political purposes. You did not worry about the students or the schools; the issue was how to make sure that you could say to the public, "Hey, listen, it is going to cost only $500,000-odd". That is what this debate is all about. Madam Speaker, Ms Follett and Mr Wood deserve the censure of this house. If they were really fair dinkum, they would both resign.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (4.15): Madam Speaker, Mr Kaine made a number of errors with his speech, but the greatest of those was that it was prepared before he walked into the Assembly and he did not make necessary adjustments following my ministerial statement. He repeated a whole range of matters; so you will have to forgive me if I am a little repetitious. One of the major arguments that they have been running is this one of maintenance, saying that we have hidden $200,000 of maintenance in the general budget. The passage of time has demonstrated the truth of what I am saying. We are almost a year-and-a-half down the track, and therefore the budget that the Chief Minister set for this - - -
Mr Kaine: So, you knew a year ago that you did not need the money, although you budgeted for it.
MR WOOD: No, Mr Kaine, we never budgeted for it. Half your complaint is that the matters were never included in the budget. Do not shift your ground.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .