Page 399 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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Of course, some of their promises that they made had not been planned. We know that the promise in relation to smaller class sizes was not planned. It was one of those election stunts where they had backflipped on something they had said just weeks before was unaffordable, and something they had said weeks before was bad policy. Of course, they have now embraced our policy on that.
So we saw on 1 October, “World trembles”; on 8 October, “Reserve cuts to the chase—global credit crisis”; and “Black Friday”. Did the government present savings then? No. Did the government foreshadow deficits? No, they did not. They claimed they would keep the budget in surplus. Another broken promise, another election, it seems.
After the election, we have the Treasurer’s speech, and there were three aims: firstly, to provide urgent assistance to those who need it most; secondly, initiatives to stabilise the economy; and, thirdly, increased accountability and transparency of the Assembly. It is therefore sensible that the elements in the bill be examined within that framework. With respect to the $1 million in emergency relief via welfare and community groups, we, of course, recognise the need in this regard. We proposed a different path. We proposed direct payments, particularly to pensioners, but we certainly do not oppose—
Mr Barr: The Prime Minister beat you to that one, didn’t he?
MR SESELJA: Actually, I did announce it prior to that, but he was able to deliver before us. No, I did not copy the Prime Minister. We did announce it prior to his announcement. I had no inside knowledge about what the Prime Minister was going to do . We are not getting leaks from the Prime Minister’s office saying they are about to offer relief for pensioners, so I can claim no inside knowledge.
Mr Barr: Was it your brilliant idea? Did you invent the internet as well?
MR SESELJA: Look, I don’t claim to have invented things that I have not, but I think it is on the record when we made our announcement. It was prior to the Prime Minister’s announcement. That is a point of fact. I am not going to claim that he copied us. We do not know whether he reads the Canberra Times and follows local politics, but we will leave that one aside. We certainly do believe that urgent relief for people like pensioners is particularly important. This $1 million in emergency relief is one of the parts of the bill that actually is urgent and it is important that it be passed quickly, but I think there are a number of other aspects which are not urgent, and that needs to be said.
Of course, the other parts that are urgent include $2.5 million for carers and volunteers. As I say, we took a different path during the election campaign, but we do not have any problem with these promises and with the Labor Party putting in place, through the appropriation bill, some of these promises. With respect to the $2 million via direct grants to school parent groups, I understand this is to P&Cs and P&Fs. Is that correct?
Mr Barr: That is correct, yes.
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