Page 4821 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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MR PRATT: Gee, thanks, minister! I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Minister, looking at the AG’s report and getting back to the point, are these discrepancies and budget overruns a result of poor controls and lack of internal audit function?
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, what I will do for those opposite yet again—
Mr Pratt: Is answer the question.
MR HARGREAVES: Are you finished yet? Have you finished making a goose of yourself? Good.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Just come to the question.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, for the edification of those opposite, I will get yet another breakdown of the Treasurer’s advance for that and bring it to the Assembly.
Mr Smyth: Why did you ask for money that you did not need, or didn’t you know?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
Mr Pratt: What about the internal audit report?
MR SPEAKER: And Mr Pratt! You have had your chance at asking a question and the minister is going to respond to it.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, the real question that Mr Pratt is asking is: is the ESA responsibly discharging its responsibilities vis-a-vis its expenditure? I can say this much: I have every confidence that the ESA’s management will function within the context of all financial management legislation. I am quite confident of that and I have every confidence that they have.
Mr Speaker, it is a shame that Mr Pratt—who is, I have to tell you, with the exception of one or two people that he has stoked up personally, roundly detested by that group of people because he continues to denigrate them—denigrates the volunteers, denigrates the firefighters and denigrates the ambulance officers. He denigrates those people administering them. He does not give those people an opportunity to form their department full time.
Mr Pratt: Is that the best diversion you have against answering?
MR HARGREAVES: All he does, Mr Speaker, is sit in here and interject, interject and interject.
Mr Pratt: Is that the best diversion you have against answering?
MR HARGREAVES: An examination of the tape will show the depths to which this man will go.
MR SPEAKER: Come to the subject matter.
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