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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 6 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 1894 ..

MR BERRY: I am coming to that.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, if you are dealing with Floriade, perhaps you can answer the Government whether you costed Floriade.

MR BERRY: I have already said, Mr Speaker, that it was the Government's job to construct the budget. It was never the role of the Estimates Committee to do that. Let me give you an example of what might occur arising from the Estimates Committee. For example, my colleagues sitting on the crossbenches over there, Mr Corbell and I agreed on the issue of the Floriade fee. A motion was carried yesterday calling on the Government to do something about that. Reinstating the gold coin fee was Mr Osborne's idea. We thought it should be free, but with compromise and consensus we came together and we came up with this decision. A motion put before the chamber was agreed to. Mrs Carnell was out in the media yesterday saying she was not going to take any notice of it. The weight now falls on my colleagues from the crossbenches to decide what they might do about that. If the Government was not so arrogant about the issue, it could go away and adjust its budget to deal with those issues.

MR SPEAKER: Order! We are now well away from the question.

MR BERRY: The costing and the reconstruction of the budget which flow from Estimates Committee recommendations are not the role of the Estimates Committee. We do not have our hands on the levers. It is the role of the Government to do that and it is our job to look at the bottom line.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The question has been answered. A question fully answered cannot be renewed.

Mr Rugendyke: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. I draw your attention to standing order 202(a), (d) and (e), and I call on you to name Mr Berry under that standing order.

MR SPEAKER: That relates to persistently and wilfully obstructing the business of the Assembly. I think the question has been comprehensively answered.

MR HIRD: I ask a supplementary question. I do not want to let him off easy. Mr Berry, I take it from your answer that the answer to my question was no. You said in a media release dated 17 February this year, in relation to Labor's discredited costings before the ACT election:

Labor will add an average of less than $10 million a year over three years to the ACT's operating expenses.

Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is a supplementary question, and there is not supposed to be a preamble. Why do you not tell him to sit down while I take my point of order?

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