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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2676 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

The main problem I have with the motion before us is that it seeks to set parameters for something that we do not know about yet and something over which we will have little or no control. We are not advising the Minister on how he should act or how it is going to go.

We also have on the table Mr Berry's foreshadowed amendment. It deals with the amount of money that he wants to move out.

Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker, on the ground of relevance. I do not think Mr Moore is entitled to speak to an amendment which has not been moved yet.

MR SPEAKER: No, indeed he is not. I am sure Mr Moore is not going to speak on that. Mr Moore will no doubt speak about it later; but you will not at the moment, will you, Mr Moore?

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, under those circumstances, I note that Ms Reilly's motion talks about general Assembly funding of the public housing budget. Tied in with that is the issue of the $10.4m which was the subject of a series of questions in question time yesterday. In dealing with that issue, I think it is very important for this Assembly to recognise that there are certain commitments I have made. Those commitments are to allow a government to have its budget, as indeed I did with the previous Government, with one exception - education. That exception was in my platform. I said that I would consider it entirely inappropriate for a change to be made to the education budget. Labor had the opportunity to put some action where their mouth was on education.

Ms McRae: So did you, Mr Moore.

MR MOORE: They could have ensured that there were no cuts to the education budget; but they did not, in the hope that they could roll the Government, in the hope that they could become the new government. They refused to protect education.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Moore, we are discussing housing.

MR MOORE: Indeed, Mr Speaker, but associated with that is education. They refused to protect education. I mention that to illustrate to you, Mr Speaker, and to illustrate to the students here today, whose education is affected, that this is just a stunt. Labor can crow from where they are. They put up the option to vote against a line in the budget, to vote against the budget and to bring down the Government so that they could be the government. They traded off the possibility of assisting education for a chance at government. That is what they did. That is what the community knows. That is what the education community knows, too.

Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. We all know how Mr Moore is prone to try to grab a headline and take every opportunity, but it would be better if he just stuck to the issue as required by the standing orders.

MR SPEAKER: I have been drawing that to his attention for some time, but no doubt he could not hear me for the noise emanating from other parts of the chamber.

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