Page 3830 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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luck; I hope that you can get some money out of the commonwealth. It is a national Australian team going to Beijing to represent their country. We are honoured to have the relay here; that is a great thing for Canberra. But there seem to be some pretty amazing elastic estimates there which I think are far in excess of what you actually need.
Another matter is of great concern to me. There is a line item for $75,000 for the family and community fun day. Page 9 of the report says:
The Committee notes that this expenditure is for an event that took place on 6 November 2007. It is of concern that this funding was not sought in the 2007-08 Budget and that instead the Legislative Assembly is being asked to retrospectively approve already committed funding.
Kate Carnell lost her job in a similar situation to that, but because you are a majority, arrogant government you think you can get away with it. You think you can get away with it. That is appalling.
Mr Corbell: It is not true at all, Bill, and you know it. Secret overnight loan—that is what Kate Carnell did.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Corbell interjects.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR STEFANIAK: At least, Mr Corbell, when you announced some of your initiatives in the budget, that was in a slightly more traditional sense in that it was dependent on the budget being passed. It was like a budget preview. We are now going to do that; we are now going to pass those and other initiatives. But this is amazing. This is money already spent for an event. Spending money before the supply is passed is a demonstration of this government’s arrogance. I am pleased to see the committee making note of that fact.
A number of line items in this second appropriation bill should have been picked up in the budget before. Surely the government knew about things like the need for extra buses and the need to drought proof sports ovals. All of these things have been on the cards and on the table for many, many months. They should have been put in the budget we passed in August.
I will come to something I am quite pleased to see. I questioned the Chief Minister about it at the hearings last week. I refer to the $600,000 provided for the Civic petrol plume. That problem has been around for years. In answer to a question, the Chief Minister stated:
The plume has existed for years and years. The Department of Territory and Municipal Services, the Department of Urban Services … has sought to manage this plume in all that time. The point has arrived, through the second appropriation bill, where, for the first time in all those years, we have decided to seek to deal with the plume in a concrete, significant and final way.
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