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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3083 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

And guess what they have done? I am advised that a notable firm in this town has said, "Yes, we will pick up the tab and show also that we are supporting your organisation". Ernst and Young, one of the big five accounting companies, I am told, said, "We agree with what you are doing, we are delighted that you have gone out of your way to get your own sponsorship, and we are prepared to give the $500".

Ms McRae: The buses should not have cost anything in the first place. Outrageous!

MR DE DOMENICO: Ms McRae, I agree with you; and they have not. The buses have not cost anything. Let me tell you what has happened, Ms McRae. You have not spoken to Mr Perry or Mr Allan, have you?

Ms McRae: I rang Mr Allan this morning.

MR DE DOMENICO: Have you spoken to him?

Ms McRae: Yes.

MR DE DOMENICO: What did he say?

Ms McRae: I am not going to tell you.

MR DE DOMENICO: Of course she is not going to tell me, Mr Speaker, because she cannot play politics if she tells me. They are her own words, Mr Speaker. Thank you very much. Who is sorry now? Mr Speaker, when we do something in this city, we consult the people that we are supposed to be helping and we take their advice. Mr Allan said, "We do not want to be treated as a charity. We want to be treated in the same way as the Olympians were treated".

Mr Berry: And that is how they are going to be treated.

MR DE DOMENICO: And that is how they are going to be treated, Mr Berry, because that is the way they wanted to be treated. They would have been treated like that anyway, whether or not you had played your politics.

Mr Speaker, the Government is absolutely delighted to support Ms Follett's amendment. The other thing the Government is also delighted to do is to expose this lot opposite for the grubby little political animals that they are, playing politics with issues like this one. What they should have done was speak to Mr Perry and to Mr Allan, instead of playing politics in this place over this sort of issue. Shame on them!

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

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