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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (2 July) . . Page.. 2217 ..

MR HARGREAVES: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I still want to know, and I am going to pursue this until the cows come home, what the Fire Service budget is, because I do not believe that there is any other agenda but to destroy the uniqueness of that service. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to speak for a second 10 minutes.

Leave granted.

MR HARGREAVES: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want an answer to the question I asked, and I have asked it in public. I know the Minister has ducked and weaved. You know, he has moved like a butterfly and stung like a bee, very well indeed, so far, but, unfortunately, Joe Frazier is still coming after Muhammad. What has happened to the million dollars that was in the Emergency Services budget for the 19 firefighter positions that have remained unfilled for the last two years? What happened to it? It was in the base budget two years ago. I suspect that it has gone into the Emergency Services bucket to be distributed because they have had a contraction in their funding. If that is so, let the truth out. Let us have the truth out. Say to us, "We haven't got any money". Well, where did it go?

As far as I can see, if they are 19 positions down and are providing the same service they always have, that is a productivity increase in anybody's money. This Government can find an extra $27m for a football field which, incidentally, does not have AFL on it, so it has not got any sympathy from me. Mind you, so long as it keeps St Kilda off it, that will be fine by me. All that the guys want out of that $27m is $1m. This Government could say, "We recognise the fact that you firefighters have done an exemplary job over the last two years. Here is a five per cent pay rise. Here is your million bucks back", because it is in the base budget. I do not believe for a second that it is not in that base budget unless somebody can show me where it has disappeared to.

I would like to address the issue of the prison for a second or so. I will not be too long on this because I suspect that the Minister and I agree on far more things than we disagree on. Sometimes that gets me in a bit of trouble with some of the people I am fond of, but nonetheless I suspect that we agree on more things than we disagree on. What I guess we also disagree on often is the timing, and I think that is a fair enough thing for us to disagree on. That is the political divide.

It was a bit difficult for me to find it in this set of papers but I understand that last year we had $400,000 to go to the first step of the prison. I understand that it was for program management, project direction and stuff like that, and we did not spend it. We only spent about $100,000 of it or less. Sorry, it was $500,000. Now we have $400,000 or something like that left in rollover funds for that. What I would like to know is this: Is that the amount of money that we will be paying the project direction team when the Government decides that now is the time to go? Is it the case that all we need to argue about is the timing of that?. The Minister would have us believe that he wants us, the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, to do X. We are saying, "Please, Minister, do Y". When that comes off, bingo, we are all in sync and off we go.

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