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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3220 ..

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. I desisted from interrupting the Chief Minister. We have followed strictly your instructions about not interjecting. The Chief Minister's response was entirely irrelevant. I do call to your attention the standing orders that do require a Chief Minister to answer a question. My question was whether any other advertising company or campaign has been treated in the same way. I want to bring to your attention, Mr Speaker, that there is a standing order in relation to relevance.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mrs Carnell: I take a point of order again, Mr Speaker. I started to answer the question by saying this was not an advertising campaign. It was a brand vision, Mr Speaker. To my knowledge, no government in the ACT has ever gone down this path before, so how could there be a precedent?

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, my question is also to the Chief Minister. No doubt, Chief Minister, you are aware of Prime Minister Howard's recent promise of $100m to be allocated for a train link between Adelaide and Darwin. The announcement was made during the Northern Territory election campaign. Can you advise when the ACT will be receiving its $100m allocation for the very fast train link between Sydney and Canberra? Will it be soon, or have you asked Mr Howard to wait until, say, the second or third week in February?

MR SPEAKER: Or is this a hypothetical question, Mr Moore?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I can guarantee that if Mr Howard offers us $100m tomorrow I will take it. I think everybody else would take it, too, very quickly. Yes, Mr Speaker, we are lobbying the Prime Minister to treat the ACT on the same sort of footing as he treated South Australia, the Northern Territory and Newcastle. The Prime Minister has indicated support for the very fast train project. He has indicated that he believes very strongly that the train project should go ahead. We have suggested to the Prime Minister that such things as tax breaks on the project should be announced sooner rather than later. We would certainly be very keen to have $100m for the project; but the Prime Minister has already announced $133m for the National Museum, to be spent over the next few years, and that comes out of the same fund, as I understand it. Certainly, $133m for the National Museum is something I think everyone in this place wanted, but another $100m would be good.

MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I think we are talking about a different fund. I am talking about the pork-barrelling fund. I wonder, Chief Minister, whether this will be an interesting test to see who has more influence on the Prime Minister, Shane Stone or you.

MRS CARNELL: I can absolutely guarantee, Mr Speaker, that it will not be me.

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