Page 1112 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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Mr Smyth: No. Answer the supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
Mr Smyth: He can’t do that. He should answer the question.
MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Smyth.
MR STANHOPE: It is relevant to remind members of the opposition of their quite negligent approach to budgeting during the period that they were in government. I will never forget the pay offer which the then government, through the then minister for health, Michael Moore, made. This was a matter of some moment in the lead-up to the election. It offered over 14 per cent to nurses which they had not at that stage accepted.
We assume that an offer of that significance would have been budgeted for and that there would have been some allowance in the outyears, to the extent that the then government sought to dress up its so-called fiscal responsibility by producing in the outyears a particular stated position. It was a position on which there was no real allowance for wages in the negotiations which they knew they would have to engage in after the election. It really is a significant sign of the Liberal Party’s approach to budget that in government they refused to show some of the fiscal responsibility which they urge.
It was not just in relation to budgeting practices but in relation to this government’s attitude to the provision of essential services such as disability. One of the other things which we inherited and which had a significant budget impact was the Gallop report into disability services—a royal commission into disability services and service delivery under the Liberal Party—
Mr Smyth: A point of order, Mr Speaker: under standing order 118 (b), the Chief Minister cannot debate the point. The supplementary was: will he honour his election promises? It was not about what happened in 2001. I ask that he direct himself to the supplementary.
MR STANHOPE: We made promises on disability services. I am talking about disability.
MR SPEAKER: Come to the subject matter.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker; I will. We made certain commitments to this community on disability services. The promises that we made we will keep. Those promises arose out of the Gallop report which essentially was a commission of inquiry, a royal commission, into the management of disability services by the Liberal government. It was a scathing report in its findings and it was a scathing report on the Liberal Party’s commitment to people with a disability in this community.
This government accepted, adopted and implemented that report at significant cost to our budget. We will carry through our election promise and our commitment to people with a disability in this community, unlike the previous government. We will carry through our
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