Page 2938 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 October 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Humphries. Would you indulge me for a minute, Mr Cornwell?
The question is one of relevance. Two things are being discussed here. The first is whether Mr Cornwell is entitled to raise those previous matters. He is entitled to raise those previous matters. There is no problem with that. What I was concerned about, Mr Cornwell, is that what you are doing, in effect, is accusing the Chief Minister of misleading the house on 12 December. That should be dealt with as a motion of censure of the Chief Minister. I understand what you are doing in terms of parallel, but could I caution you to change the wording perhaps. Otherwise, if you want to pursue that particular matter, that will have to be by way of motion. Perhaps you could rephrase that area.
Ms Follett: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. May I ask that he withdraw the imputation?
MADAM SPEAKER: Please do so, if you would, Mr Cornwell. I did intend that, through my ruling, Ms Follett.
MR CORNWELL: For the purposes of the debate, because this is far more important than whether or not the Chief Minister believes that I have misled the house or whether I have attacked her personally, I will withdraw, Madam Speaker.
I would like to refer now to a misleading statement that she made today, earlier in this debate. That was the reference to the question that was asked by Mrs Nolan last year. She said that Mrs Nolan asked about only advice from Treasury. This simply is not so. Mrs Nolan asked:
Can the Chief Minister inform the house of the total cost of reopening Lyons and Cook primary schools? Will this money be found from within the education budget; if not, where will it come from? Can the Chief Minister inform the house what advice was received from Treasury ...
There were, in fact, three questions asked, not one question relating simply to Treasury's view. In response to this, the Chief Minister said:
... the nearest that we can work out is that the closure of the Lyons Primary School cost some $1.2m. I believe, therefore, that any reasonable person who looks at the cost of reopening those schools would regard it as very good value for the money. I do not have the precise figures with me, but I am aware that the total cost for the two schools to be reopened is in the order of half a million dollars - - -
Mr Wood then interjected and said:
And $100,000 for maintaining staff.
Ms Follett continued:
Thank you, Mr Wood. It is $500,000 plus - in the order of half a million dollars, as I said.
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