Page 925 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
that it is to do with figures, and asking the minister to be prepared to answer the question would be sufficient. I certainly hope that in the future we will get better answers.
I think that there has been a bit of a pattern emerging with Mr Corbell in recent times of not answering questions. I had some answers to questions on notice come back from a committee just recently and, once again, Mr Corbell refused to answer the questions that were put to him, quite reasonable questions, seeking to obtain information on behalf of people of the ACT about his time as minister. Once again, he refused, and in the last couple of days in question time he refused—
Mr Corbell: You just do not like the answers; that is your problem.
MR SESELJA: They are not answers. Even with the question today, you would not tell us whether the letter came from a Labor staffer. I know that it might have been embarrassing for him to say so, but I call on him to table it so that we can all see how objective this constituent is.
Mr Corbell: There is a difference between answering and you not liking the answer.
MR SESELJA: No, I want the answer. We really want this answer. I just do not think you want the answer to be seen.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Seselja, direct your comments through the chair. Mr Corbell, cease interjecting.
MR SESELJA: I would once again call on Mr Corbell to table the letter from the constituent, from the very concerned Labor apparatchik constituent. It must have been extremely embarrassing for him to find that it was a Labor staffer. Maybe he did not know. Maybe he missed that point, but I think that it is a salient point. I think people in the community would want to know. If Mr Corbell is going to pass off a Labor staffer’s letter to him as representative of Canberrans’ experience of the ACT hospital system, then Mr Corbell is going to have a serious credibility problem.
Phenomics facility
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (6.01): I would like to draw the Assembly’s attention to a recent event that I was pleased to attend on behalf of the Chief Minister. The occasion was the celebration of the fulfilment of three years of planning and construction, culminating in the official opening of a world-class facility, the Australian Phenomics Facility, at the ANU.
The Australian Phenomics Facility increases the standing of the ACT’s biotechnology and health sciences industries around the world. In 2003, in its economic white paper, the ACT government committed to supporting the biotechnology industry as an industry that could provide the ACT with high-value jobs. Not only does the ACT have a natural competitive advantage because of the world-renowned research carried out at the ANU, but also it has the ability to turn that research into high-value jobs and investment opportunities, as demonstrated by the Australian Phenomics Facility and its spin-off company, Phenomix Corporation.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .