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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 770 ..

Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: It is not in the one that went to every household. That is the point that I am making.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I hope that was Mr Kaine's supplementary, but, as you can see from the small report that went out to people's households, it does indicate that you can get the full State of the Territory Report from libraries, shopfronts and also on the net; so the full report is very, very much available. I understand that the pamphlet was created to make sure that the people of the ACT have an opportunity to have a look at what is happening in the Territory, and to see how the Government is progressing.

Mr Speaker, 220,000 pamphlets were printed and it cost $50,470 to have the pamphlets designed, printed and delivered to every Canberra household. On the basis of a quick division, Mr Speaker, that is 42c per household, or less than the cost of a postage stamp.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary, Mr Kaine?

MR KAINE: I am not clear whether that $50,000 is the total cost of this public relations exercise, but the Chief Minister, in any case, did not address the second part of my question.

Ms Carnell: Which is?

Mr Moore: Which is? Which is the second part of your question?

MR KAINE: Didn't you hear my question, Chief Minister? You were not listening? You were too busy preparing your answer for the first part.

MS CARNELL: A supplementary that reiterates a first question is out of order.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer and is about budgets. An article in the Australian Financial Review of Friday, 3 March, reported that the cost of the Federal Government's bill to compensate the States for the GST had blown out to $7 billion, to which there appears little dispute. The article reports that the Commonwealth will have to make top-up payments to the States for many years, and some of the States seem to be making claims about that now. Given that the report was based on a document prepared for a forthcoming ministerial council of treasurers, can you say what the extent of the compensation payment to the ACT will be, what you will be seeking, and for how many years will the ACT require top-up payments?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I have actually provided this information before in a ministerial statement I made in the last sitting week of last month, I think it was, on those issues. I think I have answered those questions in that statement. I indicated, for example, in that statement that the ACT expected to be receiving top-up payments until 2003-2004, in which financial year, from memory, the ACT's increase in revenue because of the GST would be of the order of $1.4m, and would rise sharply in years after that, reaching, in 2009-2010, something of the order of $74m or $75m.

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