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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1821 ..

MR QUINLAN: Yes, they are. They are the decisions you made. You put up taxes. There is a false claim in a press release put out today that expenditure has grown by only five per cent in your time. Of course, you did not put into that press release the fact that you had taken the whole of government, consolidated government, figures. The general government sector-the bit that you are in charge of-has gone up by far more than the CPI. That figure is diluted by reduced expenditure by government business enterprises.

There has been a spurious use of figures. It is misleading and it has got nothing to do with your job. When Mr Humphries stands up to speak in this debate, will he concede that general government sector expenditure has gone up by more than the CPI since the Carnell government was elected in 1995? I reckon it has gone up by about 18 per cent; I reckon the CPI is about 11 per cent.

Ms Carnell: CPI is not 11, so you are wrong on that. I know that.

MR QUINLAN: What is it?

Ms Carnell: In real terms it is about 5.7 per cent-

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Order! Mr Quinlan and the government side of the house: come to order please. Mr Quinlan, address your remarks to the chair, sir.

MR QUINLAN: I am sorry. I have been mercilessly baited by the other side of the house, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Mercilessly!

The Carnell government has made a couple of other claims. Because you cannot help yourselves, from time to time we get regular questions-otherwise known as dorothy dixers-asked by the government backbencher, the very busy government backbencher, on the performance of government and we are told how well we are doing in respect of employment. But, our unemployment figure has always been better than the Australia unemployment figure. Somehow it is a miracle if it happens during the period of the Carnell government. I do not whether it was a miracle when it happened before-

Mr Humphries: Growth is not always better. Growth is not always better than the national average; growth is not always better.

MR QUINLAN: I am talking about unemployment. You can talk about growth when you speak in this debate. This person comes into this place and talks about unemployment rates. He tells us how much better our unemployment rate is than the rest of Australia. In fact, in comparison with the rest of Australia, we have declined a little over the last few years; not improved, declined. We are still better than the rest of Australia but the relativity has declined somewhat.

Again, I do not know why you do it? You have got the best circumstances known to mankind in which to put together a budget, but you still cannot help yourself-you have got to go over the top with crook figures to try to make it look so much better than it is. I suppose it is just-

Mr Humphries: You would never do that, Ted, would you?

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