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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2342 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

The base figure the Chief Minister claims she started from this year was $192.2m. The figure she concedes is her figure in this year's budget - - -

Mr De Domenico: Is that in the budget papers, in the Appropriation Bill?

MR WOOD: This is the answer to Mr Kaine the other day.

Mr De Domenico: Right. It is not in the Appropriation Bill, is it?

MR WOOD: I am not pre-empting debate, Mr De Domenico. The Chief Minister's starting point this year is $199.9m. The $192.2m that the Chief Minister claimed in her answer to a question was supplemented by an amount of money, as is routinely done, to cater for salary increases and for the profile, the profile being the increase each year that teachers achieve as they complete years of teaching. Routinely, those figures were accommodated by way of supplementation, but the Chief Minister does not want to take notice of that supplementation. She does not want to acknowledge it; but it is a key because, once we take that supplementation into place, the figure from last year to this year is the same. There is no increase in the education expenditure, as the Chief Minister tried to explain on Tuesday.

Mr De Domenico: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: With respect, is not Mr Wood now transgressing the motion before us and debating the Appropriation Bill? When he starts quoting figures out of the Appropriation Bill, I find it very difficult to understand how he cannot be pre-empting debate.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, I have to uphold that point of order. Mr Wood, please be aware that you must not anticipate debate. I remind all other members of that, including those whose contributions to the debate seem to be more by interjection than by getting to their feet.

Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: If Mr Wood is anticipating the debate, then he is out of order.

MR SPEAKER: Indeed he is, and I have upheld the point of order.

Mr Kaine: I suggest that you should rule accordingly and tell him that he is out of order. You have not told him that.

MR SPEAKER: I have upheld the point of order. He is out of order in anticipating the debate.

Mr Kaine: You said it. He is out of order.

MR WOOD: I shall cease that, Mr Speaker. I would not wish to be out of order. Quite understandably, the members on the Government side do not want to hear arguments which indicate that the Chief Minister, as usual, is distorting those figures. The facts are that this house should censure the Chief Minister because she has not accurately portrayed to this house the figures. There has been no increase in education - - -

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