Page 912 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007

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You stand up and criticise us for that! You stand up and seek to confect some abuse of power because, in the context of accepting a minority position on an extremely important committee, we think it is reasonable for the government to chair this committee, albeit from a minority position. What nonsense. You should stand embarrassed by the nonsense you spouted this morning. Once again, it is a reflection of the fact—

Mr Pratt: Well, we don’t.

MR STANHOPE: The point I make, Mr Pratt, is that this whole debate has been confected by you. You have been banging on for almost an hour now, for the sheer purpose of theatre. You have been banging on for one hour about the fact that, although we as a government decided to allow the opposition to dominate the estimates committee, with the crossbench, we thought it appropriate in that circumstance for us to simply chair the committee.

We agreed amongst ourselves. We showed a willingness to embrace the Assembly. We agreed that we would be in a minority. We have had to put up with this confected nonsense which really is a cover for the fact that you have nothing to say on issues of substance. You do not want to debate bills that are before the Assembly. You have no policies—not one. I have not seen a single policy except decisions to not open schools, to abandon the fire levy, to abandon the water abstraction charge, to cut payroll tax and stamp duty and—the decision we saw this week—to reinstitute an ecobank at the cost of $100 million in its first year.

Mr Stefaniak: No, that was Kevin Rudd.

MR STANHOPE: No, it was you. It was actually reaffirmed this week. There is Vicki Dunne’s flawed policy. We know what the policies are. We have actually got the $100 million bank back. Richard Mulcahy, the shadow Treasurer, embraced it this week. They are the policies we know about—the ones that will cost the community somewhere between $200 million and $300 million in the first year. (Time expired.)

Question put:

That the question be now put.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

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