Page 2719 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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Opposition members: Hooray!
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability and Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections) (4.41): I might just remark that I had not said anything before the rabble got going.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Yes, I had noticed the noise.
MR HARGREAVES: So I congratulate you on your speed.
One of the things that those opposite have not worked out is that this budget is a budget for the time. It is a responsible budget, but it also indicates within it the imperative to be responsible and it says how we will work together to get over the global financial crisis as it applies to services that we deliver.
It is interesting that those guys over there leap to the defence of the Auditor-General when, in fact, the Auditor-General has not received a cut in the budget at all, as indeed the Legislative Assembly has not. You have got to ask yourself from time to time how many times you can do a double backflip with pike. These guys are gold medallists at this. They are gold medallists at the double backflip with pike. I tell you what: I wish you guys would come down to Batemans Bay when we go fishing because you guys are brilliant bait, absolutely superb bait.
The thing that they have not acknowledged is that there is a bit of a contradiction here. They are saying to the government, “Dear government, don’t attack your senior officers.” But those very same senior officers are fair game for the opposition to have a go at. There is a little bit of a contradiction. I notice that Mr Seselja is sitting there with all his friends. I will count them for you—no, no, no, no, no. He has got twice as many friends this week as he did last week. Also, I did notice, when the Chief Minister got up and started talking about land rent, how in fact the colour drained from the Leader of the Opposition’s face at the time: he had been sprung and had been snapped at it. It seems like this is the week for the colour to drain from the faces of leaders of oppositions. Of course there was some rumour at one point that the Leader of the Opposition here had designs on the federal house. Well, heavens, he does walk in the footsteps, in fact, of Mr Turnbull—for getting it wrong.
Mrs Dunne: I raise a point of order on relevance, Madam Assistant Speaker. This is a debate about the line, in relation to the budget, of the Auditor-General. We have had land rent and what is happening up on the hill. I am sure we can get land rent a little later in the day, but at the moment we are talking about the Auditor-General’s line.
Mr Corbell: On the point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker: the Leader of the Opposition, in his comments on this line item, managed to draw in the coroner’s inquiry into the 2003 bushfires and a range of other matters. I think it has been a very broad-ranging debate and, as is the case with debates on appropriation bills, the debate is necessarily wide ranging, and there is no point of order.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: No. I agree with you, Mr Corbell.
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