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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2605 ..

Mr Corbell has maintained on numerous occasions in the Assembly that when Labor came to office mental health spending per capita in the ACT was $67. He stated this in the Assembly on at least six separate occasions. And I will read them, Mr Speaker. In the 3 March Hansard, Mr Corbell said:

The government has significantly increased resources for mental health. When we came to office the spending was $67 per head of population. We now have it over $100 per head of population.

On 11 March he said:

When the Stanhope government came to power in 2001 the spending for mental health in the ACT was $67 per head of population, the lowest in the country. Mental health had been neglected and ignored for five years under the previous government.

He then goes on to say:

Since coming to office we have increased the funding for mental health from the miserly $67 per capita under the previous government to $115 per capita in 2003.

On 30 March, Mr Corbell said:

Of course, it is worth repeating in this place, although Mr Smyth likes to avoid it, that when we came to office the level of expenditure in the ACT stood at $67 per head of population.

He then says again:

It was $67. We have close to doubled that to $117 per head of population.

Mr Corbell then comes back, on 31 March, and says:

If Mr Smyth wants to challenge the data from the latest national mental health report, which recorded the ACT’s per capita expenditure was $67 per head …

He goes on to say:

… that $67 per capita was the level of expenditure that the Liberals were delivering—a measly amount.

Then again, on 31 March, Mr Corbell says:

The opposition spokesperson also asked me where the … $67 per head of population attributed to the last government comes from.

He then comes back into the Assembly, Mr Speaker, and makes half a correction. I will get to that shortly. In the wee hours of the sitting of 13 May he came into this place and attempted to clarify his statements, and this is what he said:

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