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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1366 ..
MS CARNELL: Actually, Mr Speaker, in June of last year Mr Quinlan issued a statement saying that Labor was all about creating a knowledge-based economy. He talked about the anti-AIDS drug-
MR SPEAKER: Order! Whoever made the remark about being a hypocrite will withdraw it as it is unparliamentary.
Mr Stanhope: I withdraw the remark, though it was not directed at anybody in particular. It was generally expressed.
MR SPEAKER: That is for me to judge. We have been through all this before and I will not pursue it. You have withdrawn it and that is that.
MS CARNELL: Mr Quinlan issued a statement saying that Labor was all about creating a knowledge-based economy. He talked about the anti-AIDS drug being an example of how we had failed to keep this project in Canberra. Let me quote from his statement, Mr Speaker:
We (the Labor Party) would have had an Office of Economic Development and Industry assessing this opportunity for the ACT. We would have had the office assessing financial options from the market, with a government backed guarantee. If the funding was found on the condition the business established in the ACT it means that we would have established a potentially multi-billion dollar industry in our back yard. This means the ALP would have been indirectly involved in the creation of hundreds of jobs, life saving ideas and importantly the involvement would not hinder the quality of life we love so much.
Noble sentiments from Mr Quinlan. This government has done exactly that. Mr Speaker, I think I made the point when Mr Quinlan made the statement that I totally agree with him. Mr Speaker, that is exactly what we have done. I agree totally that that is exactly the approach we should continue to take. Mr Speaker, I assume that Mr Quinlan and Mr Stanhope would now thank and congratulate the federal government, because in their budget they made $31 million available over four years to allocate to the encouragement of commercialisation of biotechnology research. Mr Speaker, I look forward to the Labor Party giving support to that part of the federal government's budget.
MR QUINLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer. In relation to the federal budget, the Treasurer issued a statement, and repeated it in his answer to Mr Stanhope's question, that Canberra taxpayers would be better off by $150 million as a result of the changes to taxation included in the budget. Can you enlighten this house as to the components of this $150 million increase? Do you have ready figures of the cost to Canberrans of recent interest rate hikes and the further increases predicted immediately upon the presentation of the budget?
Mr Humphries: What was that last bit, sorry?
MR QUINLAN: Do you have ready figures as to what we will gain out of the GST? Do you also have ready figures as to the cost to Canberrans of recent interest rate hikes and further increases predicted immediately upon the presentation of this particular budget?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the figure of $150 million has come from my department. It is based on an assessment of the benefit to the ACT community arising out of a combination of two
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