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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4050 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

budget processes. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that in the preparation of these papers far too much energy has been spent by this Government on concealing the kind of comparative information which caused them so much embarrassment in last year's Estimates Committee process. I hope that next year's budget papers will be more informative in that respect and, Mr Speaker, I hope that the Government will reconsider some of the recommendations along the lines that I have indicated.

MS FOLLETT (10.17): Mr Speaker, I want to follow up what Mr Whitecross has said with a couple of comments generally on the Government's approach to the Estimates Committee process and its response to the Estimates Committee report. I am very sorry to see that the Government has demonstrated throughout this whole process and in a whole variety of ways the absolute contempt in which it holds this committee process and, hence, this Assembly. I think it is very sad that we see a government behaving in that manner.

Mr Speaker, it is very evident when you look at the Government's treatment, first of all, of the Estimates Committee process. We received incorrect information time after time, which had to be corrected. From my point of view, there was a quite unprecedented failure to respond to matters taken on notice, and that really affected the whole report that was presented by the Estimates Committee. I refer to the fact that questions taken on notice during the Estimates Committee process in a huge variety of areas, Mr Speaker, were not responded to by the Government until 15 November. That was some weeks after the Estimates Committee report had been completed and circulated.

Mr Wood: I got some back today.

MS FOLLETT: Mr Wood interjects, Mr Speaker, that he is still receiving responses to Estimates Committee questions taken on notice. That is a despicable response from the Government. It is utterly despicable, unconscionable and unforgivable. It demonstrates, as nothing else could, that this is a Government that is complacent and arrogant and utterly comfortable in the knowledge that Mr Moore and Mr Osborne will support it no matter what it does. They will support it in its contempt for this Assembly and for the due process of our committees.

Mr Speaker, it used to be the case that a matter taken on notice during the Estimates Committee had to be responded to within three days. What happened to that? We did not even get responses within three weeks. What is happening on that side of the house? Where are your departments? What were they doing? I think it is despicable. That whole approach - the casual, "We do not care; it is only the Assembly; anything will do" approach - is reflected in the Government's response to the Estimates Committee. What is apparent to me is that nobody in the Government, and I presume nobody in the Public Service, actually read the Government's response. Parts of this Government response are so ungrammatical, and there is so much misspelling, as to be utterly incomprehensible. Mr Speaker, why did not anybody proofread it? There are 22,000 of you. Could not anyone run an eye over it?

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