Page 4013 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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corrected the record. If you do not think that that record has been corrected to your satisfaction, fine. But she has done it. She has complied. She gets a letter first thing this morning and then walks into the place. Right? She is not here right on the dot of 10 o’clock. So what?
Mr Smyth: As early as possible.
MR HARGREAVES: Early as possible, okay. Beware the standards that you apply because one of these days you are going to have them applied to you. Ms Burch has done nothing to offend the ministerial code of conduct. She has done everything that has been asked of her. And all you guys are doing is trying to avoid getting to the Liquor Act later today.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (10.47), in reply: The minister has had plenty of opportunities to correct the record. It is interesting that Mr Hargreaves should claim we are trying to filibuster when he goes on and gives a speech for five minutes about nothing. Yet he says, “What the opposition, what the Liberals, do is go trawling through Hansard, trying to find errors.” It is interesting he should say that because in a supplementary question I actually asked the minister to clarify her answer. I am no stenographer. I was not there frantically typing it out and then reviewing my own notes. I asked Ms Burch a question, as a supplementary, to clarify what she had just said:
Minister, you referred to a couple of developments that have been finished. On what date were they handed over from the developer to Housing ACT and when will the tenants move in?
There it is. It is pretty straightforward. That was no more than six minutes later. She replied:
The completed homes I refer to were in Macquarie and Curtin. The applications are … being assessed and letters will go out to those who are deemed suitable and acceptable. They have been given an offer. We have to wait for them to come back and say whether they accept that offer. They could change their mind. We will work with those between when they receive the letters and through to the middle of next year.
I can get back to you on the exact date on the calendar with a red circle around the handover …
That is not a word. That is not a lone word. That is a sentence. It is a sentence in addition to the error she made earlier in her answer:
I can get back to you on the exact date in the calendar with a red circle around the handover …
With the marvels of modern technology, when I was in the chamber I sent an email about five minutes later, at most, after that question and she gave me that answer, asking her to please clarify her answer. Again, I have not gone through the Hansard. I have not trawled through it, as Mr Hargreaves has suggested. I had asked a supplementary question on the back of her inaccuracy. I then sent an email saying,
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