Page 2532 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 June 2005
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MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (12.22): Mr Speaker, I wish to make, very briefly, a couple of comments. First of all, I found it quite interesting to observe that Mr Mulcahy is now leading the opposition in the debate on health and that Mr Smyth has been relegated to what I might call a falsetto flit through a selected use of numbers. I want to repeat Mr Corbell’s observation of the contradictory statements that have come from the other side of the house—hurry up and stop or save and spend—at the same time.
I think it is worth responding to the typical acerbic snipe by Mrs Dunne in relation to travel. I have a distinct recollection of sitting in this place hearing Mrs Dunne report on a trip to Spain for a conference and then a short study of public transport as she went to northern France, I think, which I thought at the time was code for “the taxpayer paid my fare for my holidays” but I let it go because I thought at the time that we needed to be a little relaxed in this regard. I rather think that the comments that Mrs Dunne has made from time to time as asides in debates are just a little bit out of court.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.12—Department of Urban Services, $214,611,000 (net cost of outputs) and $74,999,000 (capital injection), totalling $289,610,000—agreed to.
Mr Mulcahy: Mr Speaker, I would like to move that we revisit urban services as I think that there was some measure of confusion. Mr Seselja wanted to speak on that matter. I move that we revisit that matter, Mr Speaker, in the interests of reasonable scrutiny, so that Mr Seselja can speak.
MR SPEAKER: Order! You will need leave to do it, on the one hand, or at the end of the consideration of the bill we can reconsider this aspect of it.
Mr Mulcahy: I seek leave to enable me to meet whatever requirements are needed in terms of the suspension of standing orders to revisit the line item for urban services.
Leave not granted.
MR SPEAKER: If you want to come back to it at the end of the bill, there is provision under the standing orders for you to do so.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.13—Department of Economic Development, $50,786,000 (net cost of outputs), $30,450,000 (capital injection) and $7,029,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $88,265,000.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (12.25): Mr Speaker there are several matters of interest in this area of the estimates that are worthy of mention. One of the areas in which we had a great level of scrutiny was in relation to the tourism industry, of which I have, as is well known, some degree of knowledge and experience. This industry accounts directly for around $530 million of gross state product and contributes indirectly another $227 million to the ACT economy. It is an industry that is a significant source of employment. It is believed to employ around 11,400 people both directly and indirectly.
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