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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (13 June) . . Page.. 1581 ..

Mr Humphries: Hear, hear!

MR HARGREAVES: It then states:

Mr Speaker, firstly I recognise the interjection "Hear, hear" from Mr Humphries, who I have to say did not contribute too much to it either. In fact, he would not know an element of fact if it jumped up and bit him.

The final construction of this budget was a nice piece of smoke and mirrors, orchestrated by that master magician, Mr Humphries, who absolutely conned his own backbench, which I am very grateful to see has doubled in number. Mr Speaker, we all know-and Mr Humphries knows-what the budget process is. It contains a starting point. It is a bit like an essay, Mr Humphries. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. The only problem is, Mr Humphries, that you forgot to tell your own backbench about the beginning and the end because they keep going into the public arena saying that the draft budget is out there.

It is a bit like a close encounter of the third kind-you know, beware it is out there, it is out there. But guess what, Mr Humphries: it was not out there because it never existed. What you gave under the guise of a draft budget was a shopping list. It was Mr Humphries' own shopping list, and it had absolutely nothing to do with a budget construction at all. Was there any attempt to reconcile the difference between the so-called draft budget and the final budget? No, Mr Speaker, none whatsoever. What an insult. No wonder we get this piece of drivel on the back of this report, Mr Speaker.

Mr Rugendyke sat on the committee for the whole of its inquiry. To be quite fair and to pay credit where credit is due, I must admit that Mrs Burke participated a lot. As far as I can recall, she attended almost every session. Indeed, Mr Hird attended quite a number of them, and I have to say that too because I do not want to be accused of being biased in favour of Mrs Burke.

Mrs Burke asked a number of questions. However, I was put out by a report in the Canberra Times which, in referring to the line of questioning, said that Mrs Burke was justifiably outraged and so on. Mr Speaker, I can remember that quite a number of times she attempted to ask a question and was somewhat thwarted. People recognised that Mrs Burke had not participated before in the process and gave way. They gave her much leeway and paid her the respect that her position did in fact warrant. However, I was a bit upset after reading that newspaper report.

Mr Speaker, I would like to make a brief comment on the actual budget amount. The most significant item that we have talked about for donkey's ages did not feature in it. There was no contingency in there whatsoever. I am talking about the second biggest building project that we have had since self-government-after the hospital redevelopment scheme, which I understand was bigger than the prison project. I see the Chief Minister sagely shaking his head. I am happy to be corrected and to understand that it is now the biggest construction project the territory will undertake.

Mr Humphries: In real terms I think it is.

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