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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4067 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services) (11.12): Mr Speaker, I am going to be very brief, but I just cannot resist it when Mr Berry gets on his feet. I can recall that during Estimates Committee hearings the three major issues on Mr Berry's mind were that Mr Walker was driving a Subaru, that I did not wear goggles when I was in his electorate cleaning off graffiti and that we did not give meal allowances to our staff, who did not even claim them. In a $11/2 billion budget the three big issues on the mind of Mr Berry were Mr Walker driving a Subaru, De Domenico not wearing goggles and Stephen Forshaw not claiming meal allowance. How right was Mr Moore! Given the response that Mr Berry has given to the budget, is it any wonder that Mr Moore has no choice?

Mr Berry: He is a conservative. He has been quite relaxed with you.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, if you are not careful, I will ask you to withdraw those remarks.

MR DE DOMENICO: There are certain responses by the Government that Mr Moore took umbrage at. Mrs Carnell has quite adequately answered the concerns that Mr Moore had. Quite obviously, we have agreed with nearly all of the recommendations made by the committee. I have been reading the committee's report. It is a very good report. I must endorse what Mrs Carnell has said. The committee was very ably chaired by Ms McRae. How the Government can be criticised for actually agreeing to the recommendations of the Estimates Committee report is beyond comprehension.

Mr Berry stood up and agreed that there was a $10m surplus but criticised us for having a $10m surplus.

Mr Berry: For selling the assets.

MR DE DOMENICO: I could not comprehend that. Mr Berry says, "Selling assets". It is as if it were the first time that any government around the world had sold a government asset.

Mr Whitecross: Selling an asset you still need.

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Whitecross comes in from deep in the heart of Texas, where he was when all this was happening, and says that we are selling an asset that we still need. The Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, Qantas and some other things are sold from time to time by other non-Liberal governments. That is digressing, Mr Speaker, and I do not want to do that.

The response of the Opposition so far this evening - apart from Ms McRae, I must admit, who attempted to get onto the issue - has been myopic. It has been as myopic as the questioning was during the Estimates Committee hearings. I rest my case, Mr Speaker. The greatest issues that we heard of were the fact that our staff did not claim meal allowances, that Mr Walker drove a Subaru instead of a Calais and that I did not wear goggles. We are talking about a $11/2 billion budget. How myopic the response from this Opposition is! Is it any wonder that Mr Moore and others will support this budget?

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