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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3984 ..

MR SPEAKER: I will give you the opportunity to ask one formally later. Can we now let the Chief Minister finish her answer?

MS CARNELL: The Commonwealth Bank, maybe the leading financial institution but certainly amongst the top group of financial institutions in this country, believed that the financial structure the Government put together was appropriate and was something they could be part of, but this Assembly made it absolutely obvious in many questions that they did not. If you take that line one day, you wear the outcomes of it. Look at surveillance cameras. The Opposition a couple of years ago said, "We do not like them". Today they say, "We like them". It is the same deal here. They indicated categorically that they did not support the private sector financing approach we put on the table.

Mr Quinlan: Rubbish!

MS CARNELL: Okay, you do support it. Do you or do you not? Mr Speaker, do they or do they not?

Mr Quinlan: We only asked you some questions. We asked for some facts.

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Quinlan.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, they either have to support or oppose. They made every - - -

Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I have to ask you for a ruling as to whether or not a wrong interpretation of what the Opposition's position was and then an attack upon that position are a fair and reasonable answer to a question. I do not think the Opposition leader is being given a proper answer to his question by any means.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, there is no point of order. As you know, questions can be answered as a Minister sees fit. The opportunity to respond to anything the Chief Minister or any other Minister says that people believe is incorrect is available under standing order 46 or 47, provided of course that you stick within the parameters of those standing orders. The opportunity is there, but not during the answer to a question.

MS CARNELL: Mr Kaine said in his point of order that a wrong interpretation of what those opposite believe would produce a particular outcome. If it is wrong, if they do support the private sector approach we put on the table, please let them say that. That is not what they did. They tried to undermine it. They tried in every way possible to create arguments. When we debated the Appropriation Bill - - -

Mr Stanhope: This was after the illegal expenditure, was it?

MS CARNELL: No. Labor opposed everything. They opposed the Appropriation Bill for CanDeliver and Bruce Stadium. That shows everything. They opposed the private sector finance; they opposed the Appropriation Bill. It is simply an Opposition that will not tell the people of Canberra what they support. That is really what it comes down to.

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