Page 5060 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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amendments will presumably go through, perhaps Mrs Dunne will add an amendment to Ms Le Couteur’s motion to make the government outline how much has been paid in interest by the government for late payments. That would be a fascinating figure. I do not think it is happening, Mr Assistant Speaker. I do not think it is happening very often, and that is the problem.
The Greens again say, “It is in our agreement.” But the problem is that it is not being implemented. The problem is that businesses are not being paid on time. If we want to look at examples, we only have to go to the document that was tabled by Ms Burch. Ms Burch was forced to table this document. We only have to look at how many entities are being paid late—in some cases, 600 days late. That is what is happening under the Labor-Greens agreement. How many days since the Labor-Greens agreement was signed? Maybe about 1,000? We have had about 1,000 days since the Labor-Greens agreement was signed.
We do not know what is happening in other directorates, but we assume that if it is happening in the Community Services Directorate—many of these entities are not-for-profits. One would think that the government would be even keener to pay not-for-profits, some of whom may not be able to look after vulnerable children if they are not paid on time. We can judge the success of the Labor-Greens agreement, which we are being asked to support in Ms Le Couteur’s motion, just by looking through this list. We can look through the list.
Let me go through the list. How many days overdue? It is 204 days overdue, 169 days overdue, 191 days overdue, 200 days overdue, 223 days overdue, 130 days overdue, 597 days overdue, 147 days overdue and 119 days overdue. That is what is happening under the Labor-Greens agreement. The government now needs to say how much interest has been paid out to those entities who have not been paid, in some cases for well over 100 days and in some cases for around 600 days—almost two years. That is pushing two years that they have not been paid.
How much interest is being paid? That is the point. That is the point that the opposition makes. We do need to implement it. We need to bring it back from the 200 days and the 100 days that people are waiting. Of course they will be paid within 30 days, but the interest will apply. The interest will apply and be applied where the payments have not been made in 45 days. That is a situation that is not happening at the moment.
Because we value small business, we believe in putting in place policies that will be delivered and that are delivered. The record of this government, despite the weasel words that are in the Labor-Greens agreement, is that they do not pay them. How do we know? We know because Ms Burch has told us so. She has told us so by her own reckoning. We have seen one organisation having payments of well over $100,000—
Mrs Dunne: And they are not on that list.
MR SESELJA: In fact, they are not on that list. They are not on that list, Mrs Dunne reminds me. We know of late payments that have now partly been made, we understand, as a result of public pressure on the government, and they are not on this
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