Page 4112 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
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I have asked them to provide this extra information and I am sure that they will; but you have to understand that these sorts of things are dealt with by direction, as I am entitled to do, and there is a cost to it. Let us not forget that there is a whole host of bureaucrats who are in the process of lining up for an examination by the Public Accounts Committee. So, we will divert them from all of that. The board will divert them from all of that just to attend to this little matter. That will be just another burden on them. Do not worry about that; we will pay for it.
Mrs Carnell: Do you mean that they do not have the first quarter figures? Is that what you are saying?
MR BERRY: No, no. You want an activity report that suits you.
Mrs Carnell: What did they draw the graph from?
MR BERRY: Are there any other problems with the activity report?
Mrs Carnell: What did they draw the graph from, Mr Berry?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please!
MR BERRY: I do not know. I did not do it. The board are the ones who are responsible for these sorts of things - and the bureaucrats who work for them.
Mrs Carnell: But you have to have figures to start with.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please! Members will desist from interjecting, please.
MR BERRY: They drew it on paper, I suppose. What a silly question!
Ms Follett: Or maybe a whiteboard.
MR BERRY: Yes, maybe a whiteboard first. This is political nonsense. There is a report coming at the end of the year. It is a quarterly financial report. They have all the information and it will show how the activity levels are moving upwards because we have higher activity than predicted.
Mr Kaine: Especially over Christmas when they are moving down.
MR BERRY: No, no; they will go down there because there is a closure period over Christmas, the same as there has been in the past.
Mr Humphries: Which you attacked when you were in opposition.
MR BERRY: There is a closure period over the Christmas period and it will be well managed. We are spending at a rate that will cause us some difficulty if it continues. Towards the end of the year we will go over the amount of money which is allocated, if it continues. The board has to work hard to rein them in and it is going to be a bit painful, I think.
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