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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3070 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

much money was there in your forward estimates for a new Supreme Court for the ACT? None. Not a single cent.

All of a sudden, this is a driving, precious, urgent piece of construction that we need for the ACT. We need a new Supreme Court. I saw a press release yesterday from Mr Stefaniak: "Urgent! Can't wait another day." How much was there in the forward estimates under you, Mr Stefaniak, the previous Attorney-General, for a new Supreme Court? Not a cent!

Mr Stefaniak: Jon, I have shown you how you can do it very cost-effectively.

MR STANHOPE: You costed it, but you did not fund it. You were gunna do it, Bill. These are the reality checks we need along the way. And a reality check goes to the speech we have just heard from Mr Smyth. Mr Smyth was gunna build a state-of-the-art prison.

Mr Smyth: We did have money for that. Look at the estimates.

MR STANHOPE: What is in the out years? What was in the forward estimates for a new prison under the Liberal Party, when Mr Smyth was minister for corrections? How much was there in the forward estimates? What did we have when we came into government to rely on? Of the $110 million, how much was funded? How much was there in the forward estimates of the Liberals' $110 million prison?

When we came in here after the 1998 election, the Liberal Party's prison was estimated to cost $28 million, and I think within a year it jumped to $35 million. Then Mr Moore took over as minister for corrections. In the space of three years, it went from $28 million, to $36 million, to $42 million, to $65 million to $110 million. Those were the Liberal Party's estimates for a prison, but how much did they put in the out years for it? How much was there in the budget? What did you allow? Nothing. Not a cent. You were gunna do it. We have done it. There is $50 million more there than you put in the budget for a prison.

One of the things that intrigued me was the extent to which it mirrored the cost increases at Bruce Stadium. You know it mirrors them perfectly. It is almost the Liberal Party model for capital works expenditure. You start at $12 million for a football stadium, and before you know it you are up to $84 million. And you broke the law. You did not bother to appropriate it; you just spent it.

It is so perfectly mirrored by the prison. You start at $26 million, get to $110 million and do not appropriate anything for that either. You never got around to it. There was no appropriation for Bruce Stadium. You just broke the law and spent it anyway. It went from $12 million to $84 million.

You did the same with the prison: $26 million to $110 million in the space of a couple of years, with not a single cent appropriated or allowed for in the out years in the forward estimates. At least we put $50 million away-and you say we have no commitment. Compare your commitment to ours: not a razoo in the Liberal Party's estimates for forward years, but we made some provision for it at least.

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