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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1657 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

inson, the Auditor-General, did not say when he made those remarks, "Well, really, the extent of the loss is not $3,000 per ACT household. It is actually only $2,500 or $2,100," whatever your figure, Mr Quinlan, would be. He used that figure. He broke that figure down into a per household and then a per person figure in the ACT because he wanted to make the point-

Mr Quinlan: Get off his back. Do not malign public servants in this place, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am not maligning public servants, Mr Quinlan. I am quoting him accurately and I am pointing out to you that you should also quote him accurately and reflect what he has had to say. He did not say that you can discount the figure by the abnormal items. He did not say you could do that. He extrapolated the figure for each person and each household in the territory.

The fact is that that is the size of the loss inherited from the Labor Party. It is the extent of the ACT community's problem that we inherited from the Labor Party and it is the extent of the achievement of the Carnell government in wiping that loss off the books of the territory. It is the extent of this great achievement. Proportionately, given the size of the budget, this achievement is probably unparalleled in my lifetime by that of any other government, with the possible exception of Jeff Kennett in Victoria after the Cain/Kirner years. This is an extremely large achievement on the part of the government and I am proud of that. All territorians, with the $3,000 lifted off their shoulders, will also be proud and pleased about that fact.

MR QUINLAN: I appreciate Mr Humphries' answer. I know his knowledge of accrual accounting is limited, given that-

MR SPEAKER: Question, please.

MR QUINLAN: I just wanted to let members know that he claims that a surplus was achieved without asset sales or borrowing.

MR SPEAKER: Is that your question?

MR QUINLAN: No.

MR SPEAKER: I will take it as such if you-

MR QUINLAN: Can the Treasurer inform the house as to what would have been the bottom line for the 2000-2001 budget had the same accounting procedures been used as were used to arrive at the $344 million?

Ms Carnell: Can we do that across the board and treat depreciation and everything else the same way?

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