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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (2 July) . . Page.. 2177 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

had blown out she came back to the Assembly and asked for extra money. As a result of that process there was a second Estimates Committee process which went through the appropriation, as was appropriate in the circumstances.

This time round, though, the Government does not want us to sniff around the Bruce Stadium matter anymore. They have had enough. They have been stung by it; they have been wounded by it. Why? Because they tried to keep it a secret. It was a cover-up of enormous proportions from the word go. Before the last election the Government made sure that it was kept secret, because their economic credibility would have fallen into tatters had they made that information available. The Government's refusal to support an Estimates Committee process on these extra arrangements to cover the Bruce Stadium is reprehensible. The Chief Minister has been reprimanded for her activities in relation to Bruce Stadium. I cannot for the life of me see why she should persist in trying to cover up what went on there.

Mr Speaker, this line of the budget cannot be supported. The budget in all, in my view, cannot be supported because of the doubt which exists about the ability of this Chief Minister and Treasurer and this Government to properly manage the finances of the Territory. Laws have been broken in relation to the Financial Management Act. The Assembly has failed to bring the Government to book at a level which Labor would support. It would be very difficult to support a budget managed by this team, given their performance thus far.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): The question is that the Carnell amendments Nos 1 and 2 be agreed to. Do you wish to speak to those amendments, Mr Quinlan?

MR QUINLAN (4.16): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wish to speak generally to this line item in the Appropriation Bill, having already spoken to the amendments.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: All right. I was not sure because you got up and sat down.

MR QUINLAN: Well, I am an indecisive sort of character. I want to make a few comments, mainly arising out of the Estimates Committee report which, as I think I said earlier, I believe is a high-quality report. We did make some recommendations in relation to the budget format, and I wish to mention them at this stage. I could have mentioned them anywhere, I guess. One of them is that the budget has some standardised statements, and I believe that is the way to go, but we find from time to time very large amounts of money being allocated through budget statements under the heading of "miscellaneous or other revenue" or "other expenses for admin charges". The Estimates Committee made a recommendation on this and the Government has been very dismissive of that recommendation.

I recommend that the Government take a second look at the presentation because notes attaching to statements do not always define the information or give any information. I am here talking to myself, am I not? I believe that if the Government wants to live up to a claim of being open then it should take note of a few constructive comments that are put in the Estimates Committee's report about giving detailed information where

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