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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (22 September) . . Page.. 2012 ..

Mr Wood: Maybe we could get some honesty into the answer if she went back again.

MR SPEAKER: Order! You may like to make a personal explanation sometime. Please continue.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I know that it is hard for those opposite to accept this; but, of the $17.5m listed in the cultural initiatives on this budget sheet that Mr Wood and the Labor Party put out, it was this Government that delivered - wait for this - $16.75m of them the following year. They have a $17.5m list of cultural initiatives that they put out in their budget, and we have to deliver on $16.75m of it. That is more than 90 per cent of the promises that those opposite made. So much for any commitment to the arts!

This Government has invested some $22m in arts and cultural facilities over the past three years, almost double what we have spent on Bruce Stadium, which was another great development, Mr Speaker. So much for an accurate budget statement! Mr Speaker, I do not mind intelligent debate. I am sure that everyone on this side of the Assembly accepts that. But, Mr Speaker, what I do mind - - -

Mr Wood: This is not intelligent debate; that is for sure. This is far from intelligent.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Settle down. Mr Wood, if you would like to make a personal explanation afterwards I might just allow you to do so.

Mr Wood: She is ignoring all the relevant interjections.

MS CARNELL: I am following standing orders. I am ignoring interjections.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you. You are indeed. You are a model to all others.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I think what has been a real let-down in the debates on the arts that we have had in this place is they have been based entirely on ignorance by those opposite and, I have to say, by some members of the crossbenches at times too. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that today I put on the table the actual figures. ABS statistics are not figures made up by those opposite. Mr Speaker, this Government is committed to cultural development in Canberra, as was clearly shown by our recent agreement with the Institute of the Arts and by our commitment not only to build new cultural facilities in the ACT, but to actually fund their recurrent operations as well. Mr Speaker, I am proud that we have reached an agreement with the Institute of the Arts, and I am proud that we have done it within budget, not just in this year but in forward estimates as well.

MR HIRD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I know that you do not allow interjections, but I heard someone say, "Untrue". All I want to ask the Chief Minister, as Minister for the arts, is whether what she has just told the house is true.

MR SPEAKER: I am not sure that you can do that. Questions shall not ask Ministers for an expression of opinion.

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