Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2586 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Use these provisions". Of course, that is what the Government did in respect of - and we have raised this so many times today - the Bruce Stadium and we got into rather serious trouble for doing that.

I raise this point to observe that at some point in the future we will need to sort out where we are going with this question of appropriations. At various stages government has been attacked for bringing second appropriation Bills forward. It has also been attacked for not bringing second appropriation Bills forward. We have provisions in the Financial Management Act to deal with the situation of the kind we are dealing with today - the V8 car race and the hospice - but we are not dealing with them using those provisions in the Financial Management Act. We are dealing with them by way of a second appropriation, because that is what the Assembly called on us to do earlier this year.

We need to sort this matter out. For example, what would the Assembly wish the Government to do in the event - we do not expect this to be the case - that an appropriation for, say, the hospice turned out to be in the order of $3.1m this financial year rather than $3m? Would it agree to a use of the Treasurer's Advance for the extra $100,000 or would it require that a third appropriation Bill be brought forward? That matter is not clear to me as Treasurer. I think we need to sort this matter out for the future. We have left the situation unresolved, and we need to come back to that matter.

Having said that, I thank members for their support for the second appropriation Bill, and I look forward to the beginning of work on these two important projects. Both in their own way are important for the future of our city.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to speak again, under standing order 47.

MR SPEAKER: You claim to have been misquoted or misunderstood; is that right?

MR STANHOPE: Most certainly.

MR SPEAKER: Very well. I will allow it.

MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. In my earlier remarks I was making the point that one of the things that I would have liked time for the Assembly to investigate was why the Government's estimates of spectators or crowd figures had been reduced from 70,000 to 50,000 over the space of the last few weeks. I said that that was the sort of question I would have liked further explanation on. How do we overnight simply reduce the number of expected spectators from 70,000 to 50,000? Mrs Carnell, Mr Humphries and Mr Moore each interjected to the effect that I did not know what I was talking about.

Ms Carnell: You did not.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .