Page 3202 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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Mr Hanson: So we are meant to praise the budget and you are meant to criticise it? Is that the way it is working?
Mr Seselja: Are you going to criticise it?
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Let the clock run because we forgot to start it. Members, I have made a number of comments now. Mrs Dunne gave some very critical analysis and she was heard in silence. Mr Hargreaves is responding and I expect him to be treated in the same way. The next member who starts to shout across the chamber at him will be warned. Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I am talking about the multicultural initiatives in the budget. The multicultural languages program and multicultural youth services both came out of a consultation process and a continual consultation with the multicultural community over a series of years. It is a logical step along the way to a conversation between the government and the multicultural community.
I do not see any recognition, however begrudging, that these initiatives may very well assist somebody, particularly people who have English as their second language or even their third or fourth language. The multicultural youth service is a particularly valuable service and I am pleased to see some additional funds in the budget for that.
When they talked about the Indigenous people, did we hear a thing about the traditional owners genealogy project? No, we did not. Why was that? There is $50,000 in the budget for that. Why do you think that is? It is because they did not read it. They did not know a thing about it. They have not said anything about it but Mrs Dunne is quite happy to scream her lungs out about a spitting incident. It shows how clever she is. In the hearing she suggested that someone might get hepatitis C from it and then she had to correct herself.
This is just an episode of opening her mouth before the brain is engaged. She should have known better on that one. She should have known better and she did not do it. But what happens here? She is going on about the so-called security lapses at that centre because of one episode where somebody spat on an officer. She got the answer she wanted. No, I tell a lie. She got an answer which showed the complete picture of that episode but still it is not good enough; still she thinks there are systemic issues to be had there. Where was the recognition from Mrs Dunne for the $1.7 million in year one that went to Bimberi Youth Justice Centre operational costs? It is nowhere to be seen.
Then we talked about the upgrade of energy, electricity and gas concessions. Mr Speaker, you mentioned this in your address on the budget because it is an issue that is not only dear to your heart; it also is part of the expertise that you bring to this place. Those opposite have not mentioned it. There is $440,000 in the first year.
What we are seeing, quite frankly, is a whole heap of initiatives that we have not had a comment about from those opposite. They have not said, “We think it is a good idea,” or, “We think it is a bad idea.” We have not had a comment from them to the
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