Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 60 ..

MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, there is a way to amend the budget, and it is the way we put forward in the debate on the last budget; that is, you oppose a line in the budget. If the Assembly votes to oppose any line in the budget, the Government must amend that line. What happened in the budget debate last time was that, because only Labor and the Greens voted to oppose a line, no line was amended. Mr Moore and Mr Osborne supported the Government's budget. It is as simple as that.

Mrs Carnell: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Now Ms Follett is reflecting on a vote in this place.

MR SPEAKER: I would caution members on this whole question of referring to the budget. Members are quite capable of debating the issues without breaching the standing orders.

MS FOLLETT: I would say to Mr Moore and Mr Osborne that that is the legal way to amend the budget. This is the way the budget has been amended, say, in the Federal Parliament. This is the way the budget could legally be amended in this Assembly, if a majority of the Assembly were of the will to do so. So do not give me that rubbish, that blackmail, about getting Labor to agree to your proposals about amending the budget. Mr Speaker, I hope you are listening to this.

Mr Moore: You would not increase the budget. You knew that we could do it. We had a very sensible amendment to the budget and you would not play ball. You found a shonky legal opinion.

MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I hope you are listening to this, because this is the blackmail, this is the threat: Unless we agree with him on amending the budget, on how to do it, then he will not support us. I really think my case is proven there. There is a way to do it, and Mr Moore and Mr Osborne do not want to know about it. That is fine with me, but let it be on the record that they have been told.

Mr Moore: The only way to do it is Rosemary Follett's way. That is what the trouble was for those previous six years.

Mr De Domenico: "Please save my leadership, Michael".

MR SPEAKER: Order! We have a lot of work to get through.

MS FOLLETT: I am going to stand here until they have all finished, Mr Speaker, or you throw them out. Mr Moore also made the comment in relation to this motion that both sides must negotiate in good faith, and I agree with that; but the fact of the matter is that the Assembly's job is to judge the Government. This is where the Government is held accountable, not the union movement. The union movement is held accountable by its own members, and it is up to its members to judge whether their trade union representatives are acting in good faith, not us. But it is up to us to judge whether the Government is acting in good faith. That is the Assembly's job, and I think it is entirely

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .