Page 4510 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
and sends the TAB down the gurgler, which is the reason why we have sought to adjust the distribution to take account of that. That might be what the Opposition desires; it might be what they see as being politically correct, so that they can work up the TAB and flog it off to their mates in New South Wales, as they proposed that we do in August.
MR DE DOMENICO (6.48): I am disappointed that Ms Szuty, notwithstanding the fact that she still, as I understand it, is not satisfied with the way that the Minister has answered a couple of questions, is not going to support the amendments anyway. That is a pity.
Mr Berry: Tony, come on!
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry, I am suggesting that you had your chance to make a contribution to this debate. I do not blame you for not speaking. I would not have spoken, if I were you, had I read the Auditor-General's report. If you are going to interject, then I will respond to those interjections.
Mr Lamont: I am just saying that you want to stay here all night.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Lamont, you can blow as much as you want to blow, but this Opposition is still pressing these amendments. I am saying to you, Ms Szuty, "Be it on your head and on the heads of others who intend to support this legislation as it stands, if anything should occur along the lines of the VITAB situation". I can recall, Ms Szuty, when Independent members of this Assembly gave the former Minister the levers to do what he wanted to do with ACTTAB. You should read today's Auditor-General's report as to what happened then. At that stage the then Minister said, "Leave it all to me. I have the levers in my hand. I will let this Assembly know, chapter and verse, what I am going to do". This Minister has come in today and has said the same thing. He said, "Do not worry about a thing; disallowance will happen". I come back and say, Ms Szuty, "Please reconsider".
The Minister said time and again, "I am further advised that the effect of disallowance has no retrospective application". Let us say that next Wednesday the Minister decides to adjust the percentages. He gives us a copy of that decision, and there is nothing at all that we can do about it until we sit again. If we believe that the Minister has made the wrong decision, we can do nothing about it. It is not retrospective; so we can do nothing about it. We come back in April, and we disallow it. The money does not go back. The Minister has to make another decision to do so again. Then he comes to us with that decision, and it sits for 28 days. If that happens to be the wrong decision as well, it is not retrospective. There is nothing at all that we can do about it.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .