Page 4092 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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MR BERRY: That is what I said; that I will be as quiet when you are speaking as you are when I am speaking. Madam Speaker, he said that the Assembly dragged me kicking and screaming to get the activity report. That is utter rubbish. The activity report was a development of ACT Health and was approved by me. The financial report which was given was the subject of a motion in this Assembly. Again, all that the Liberals wanted to do was to look at a small part of the picture and target a small part of it. They did not want to look at the good information that was flowing and the good performance. Mr Kaine, what I decided to do was to make the full picture available to you so that you can read all the good information, much as it galls you.
Mr Kaine: A bunch of graphs that convey no information. It is like the Treasurer's quarterly report.
MR BERRY: No, they would not convey much to you. They would not convey much to you, I know; but a lot of other people understand them. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to clarify that very important matter for Mr Kaine.
Mr Kaine: You have not clarified a thing.
MR BERRY: Because you are very slow on the uptake; that is why.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.39), in reply: Madam Speaker, I simply wish to reiterate what I said when I tabled the statement, which was that members must exercise caution in looking at a single quarter's results and attempting to extrapolate them for a full-year effect. This is simply not a valid thing to do. I was at great pains to say that in tabling the documents. I would urge Mr Kaine to take that statement seriously. Another difficulty that I had with Mr Kaine, Madam Speaker, was that the document which he was referring to was actually the Special Gazette, not the document which I tabled. It was a little difficult for me to follow the points he was making as the pages are not numbered the same.
Nevertheless, I would like to illustrate, as Mr Berry has done, another one of the difficulties with extrapolating from a pro rata figure. Mr Kaine referred to education and he postulated that education may be headed for a budget blow-out, to use his term, because of the figures that he sees in this first quarterly financial statement. Madam Speaker, there are some special factors in relation to Education which do affect the way that their figures are presented. One of those factors is that the self-management funds are paid to schools early on, and so are the Comcare premiums. They have been paid up front, and that is about $6.5m. That is in addition to some seasonal factors, particularly if you look at this quarter, which I am sure are relevant, relating to fuel, light and so on. So, on education, there are reasons why this single quarter's figures are not representative of the end of year budget outcome.
As Mr Kaine full well knows, especially in his position with the Public Accounts Committee, it is open to him to inquire into these matters at any time. Indeed, the Assembly has been well informed on much of the inquiry done by that committee. Madam Speaker, there is no question, as Mr Kaine seemed to imply, that the Government is trying to hide these matters from the Assembly.
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