Page 4007 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 23 November 1993
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They were, coincidentally, paid on 6 July, after the beginning of the new financial year. So, Madam Speaker, I have met Mr Connolly's challenge, and I hope for that reason that he might reconsider his position on the legislation that I have commissioned. Ms Follett also said that I was uninformed about that matter, and I hope that she also will reconsider her position.
Madam Speaker, this Estimates Committee report demonstrates very clearly that there is a quite considerable problem with a whole series of areas of government administration. The Government ought not to get into the business of dismissing these comments out of hand on a political basis, as some Ministers are wont to do, but ought to assess the means by which these recommendations would provide for a better system of management of government assets and government revenue and expenditure; and I hope that the opportunity that this presents will be embraced fully by this Government.
MR CORNWELL (9.23): Madam Speaker, I will not take up too much of the Assembly's time. I would like to refer to two recommendations of the Estimates Committee which I believe should prove quite interesting. One of them is that the Social Policy Committee of the Assembly consider a reference to review the allocation and distribution of grants to community groups. I trust that we will not end up in a situation where we are investigating the allocation of grants a la Ros Kelly in terms of political favouritism; nevertheless I believe that there is a need to examine the system of grants that applies here in the Territory, because it seems to me that there are a number of organisations that feel that they have been hard done by. Indeed, the whole question of the funding of community groups, as a principle, needs to be regularly reviewed. Therefore, I would hope that the Social Policy Committee, of which I am a member, does take on board this reference as soon as it is convenient to do so, given that we have other references before us.
I also support the recommendation that calls for the funding of the Health Promotion Fund to be restored to at least 5 per cent of revenue raised by the tobacco franchise fee. Let me be charitable about this. There has been a slippage over time in the percentage of the funds from the tobacco franchise fee going into the Health Promotion Fund. It is not a question of the amount of money. It is simply that the franchise returns have increased; the money itself has not.
Mr Berry: What happens if it falls?
MR CORNWELL: We believe that it should be on a percentage basis.
Mr Berry: So, if it falls, health promotion money goes down?
MR CORNWELL: If it is on a percentage basis, Mr Berry, obviously that is the case.
Mr Berry: You are not doing anybody any favours. I instigated the fall. No, we want the franchise returns to fall.
MR CORNWELL: You are doing very nicely out of it at the moment, and I suggest that it operate on a percentage basis.
Mr Berry: Tobacco sales are not going up.
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