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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3558 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

producing a surplus. This government has received positive results from all business surveys. It is not just that the economy is good by business surveys; the government is good by business surveys. I ask this place to contemplate that, a Labor government getting a tick from business surveys. That does not happen often. The natural reflex of business is to support conservative governments.

Mrs Burke: That's because we left you in a good position.

MR QUINLAN: And you will keep repeating that, will you?

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, please! This is a debate.

MR QUINLAN: Mr Deputy Speaker, I deny being lazy and sloppy. Yes, the bottom lines will change. Again, that is a measure of misunderstanding. I have made the effort in this place, by showing how gross revenue lines and gross expenditure lines have changed between budgets in the course of Liberal governments, of pointing out how landing close to your original estimate, if you did, was more an accident of faith than very clever planning. Those figures are available, if you care to look. But a change at the bottom line of a $2 billion turnover, heading up to $2.5 billion, of $10 million or $20 million-I do not know what fraction of a per cent that is-somehow says that we do not know what we are doing. It is out by point 0.001 per cent. What utter nonsense!

This place does, I have to say, suffer from the fact that we do not have an opposition with a credible understanding of matters economic. For the Leader of the Opposition and shadow Treasurer to start the personal insults that he started gives me a fair invitation to return serve just once, to put into perspective the fact that this guy does not know, does not have the qualifications, does not have the experience to do the job and will not have it. He is incapable.

Mrs Dunne: Does it entitle you to say that he is illiterate because he says that your work is sloppy?

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the floor.

MR QUINLAN: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It seems that there is some sort of hierarchy of insults in this place of which Mrs Dunne is the monitor. You would be highly qualified to be so, Mrs Dunne, because you tend, in your dissertations in this place, to get to the personal level fairly promptly.

I do not know exactly what was the whole point of this MPI, other than to take up the Assembly's time or to sling a few insults around but, just for once, I have happily indulged myself in trying to create a little perspective as to what I truly think of a mob that would be running around chanting about $344 million, even though they know that that was not true.

Mrs Burke: How much was it?

MR QUINLAN: The chant is about $344 million. In fact, it was produced by your government and, in fact, it was inflated by extraordinary items; therefore, it would mislead people. Because we have this crazy rule that we cannot say "lie", "dishonest"or

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