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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3952 ..

Mr Kaine: On your ruling, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker: He just keeps chattering constantly - not interjecting, chattering.

Ms McRae: On a point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker: I would like to remind Mr Kaine that no-one, but no-one, stood up and took a point of order when Mr Humphries and Mr Hird were indulging themselves. So, on a bit of fairness - - -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Let us get on with the debate.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, in relation to the $500,000 for the Feel the Power campaign, the ALP has been lobbying for an increase in promotional spending - not a decrease. So, they are not suggesting that we should not have spent the money; they are just suggesting that Tourism should have spent it, not Business. How can you say that that is money squandered?

Mr Corbell: You spent it on the wrong priority. There is no money for promotion interstate.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

MRS CARNELL: He has already been warned.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Carry on, Chief Minister.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry said that we are paying $85m in rent for buildings that we own. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the lease-back of the Magistrates Court building and the Dame Pattie Menzies Building generated up-front revenue of $49m. Rental payments over 15 years will be less than the borrowings for this $49m. His list contained $1.1m in ignored consultancy reports. The $1.1m Booz Allen and Hamilton report has generated, or will generate, more than $27m worth of savings for the health system by the end of this year.

Mr Berry's list includes $208m in revenue or spending reductions - almost half of the $422m. The spending figures also are falsely inflated by unsubstantiated claims in such areas as health. The difference between the reality and Mr Berry's claim is $63m. The $30m spending on the car leasing arrangements actually had up-front revenue of $24m and savings of $400,000 per annum - the difference being $30m.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I could run through all of this; but the bottom line of what we have here is that all of Mr Berry's statements were just wrong. They were not even just a bit wrong; they were fundamentally wrong. Of Mr Berry's "squandered" money, $222.8m cannot be substantiated at all by any figures - and he did not substantiate it - which leaves $200m of the original $422m. But, of that $200m, $135m is actually revenue or spending reductions and $65m is expenditure. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that means that the ACT taxpayer is actually $70m ahead, even on the issues that Mr Berry raised.

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