Page 5010 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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MR SPEAKER: Thank you. In light of the circumstances, Mr Coe, I cannot rule on your point of order.
On your point of order, Mr Seselja, I think that you asked me, before Mr Barr gave his answer, for some clarification. I took the opportunity during Mr Barr’s answer to reflect and I am seeking to give the chamber a clearer understanding of the point I was trying to make earlier, given your concern about my apparent lack of clarity before, which was perhaps fair enough.
Mr Hanson: Mr Speaker, on the point of order, there seems to be a clear inconsistency here in that the point of order was raised about an unparliamentary and inappropriate preamble to a question. You have made the ruling that it is okay to have a preamble that is unparliamentary and to have a question that is parliamentary.
MR SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Hanson, thank you. On the point of order—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, sit down. There is no point of order. I think you might have the grace to acknowledge that I sought to clarify my position in light of Mr Seselja’s earlier questioning.
Mr Coe: On a point of order, Mr Speaker—
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Coe.
Mr Coe: Can I please ask: to the best of your ability, do you believe what Dr Bourke said would be included in Hansard?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, it will be. Let us proceed. Dr Bourke, you have a supplementary question.
DR BOURKE: What policies does the government have to continue to grow the economy?
MR BARR: The government will continue to pursue sensible economic policy settings that enable territory businesses to continue their expansion path. I think it is worth noting that the ACT has the most generous provisions in relation to exemptions from payroll tax of any jurisdiction in Australia. We exempt most small businesses in the territory from participating at all in the payroll tax system—the highest threshold providing comparatively greater assistance to small businesses than any other Australian jurisdiction.
The government are also heavily focused on exports. We recognise the expertise of ACT businesses in a number of areas where we have comparative advantage over any other part of the country, particularly in the area of services to government. Our comparative advantage presents an ideal opportunity to export that strength and our very clear advantages to a number of large governments. Most particularly—and it is
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