Page 5410 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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I would like to address each of the points that Mr Coe has made in his motion and his speech today.
The first is in relation to the claim where he says that I misled and slurred the reputation of the RSPCA in relation to a letter I wrote to the Canberra Times earlier this year. I wrote that letter in response to a letter penned by the Chief Executive Officer of the RSPCA which was published in the Canberra Times on 25 October. In that letter, Mr Linke said:
RSPCA … has little, if any government funding so in essence it is a volunteer service …
I indicated in my letter two things. First of all, I indicated that last financial year the government had paid an additional $150,000 to the RSPCA over and above the amount agreed in its funding agreement with the government. Secondly, I indicated in my letter that the government and the RSPCA had signed a new two-year agreement from 30 September this year which provided for $570,000 a year, which was a 36 per cent increase, in direct funding to the RSPCA from the government. In addition, I indicated that the RSPCA would receive in-kind support to the value of $165,000 a year. I indicated that, as a result of this new funding agreement, the RSPCA is directly supported by ACT taxpayers, to the tune, in both cash and kind, of approximately $735,000 a year.
The purpose of my writing that letter was to address the perception created in Mr Linke’s letter that they received little or no government funding. It was simply incorrect. But what was also incorrect was my claim that last financial year the government paid an additional $150,000 to the RSPCA over and above the amount agreed in its funding agreement with the government. That was incorrect.
What steps did I take to address that? This was brought to my attention following question time yesterday afternoon.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Coe, please be quiet.
MR CORBELL: I asked my directorate to clarify exactly what the error was and what the accurate answer was, so that I could provide that to the Assembly and apologise.
I received the final draft of that answer just before question time today. I rang the Speaker just before question time today and asked him to give me leave at the beginning of question time to correct my answer and to apologise to the Assembly. And that is what I did. At the beginning of question time today, in addition to outlining the circumstances, I said to the Assembly:
I … apologise to the Assembly for any confusion this … has caused.
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