Page 4026 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013

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MR SMYTH: I apologise. It is my fault. I should not egg him on. But in his own speech he said that it was the agreed site by all those that went to the forum. But it is only the preferred site of the government. Is it the site? If so, that really does set a lot of things in train. If it is not the preferred site or it does not become the site—I think we should stop using the word “preferred”. It either is the site or it is not. It is now identified in city to the lake and the city plan. So, is it the site? If the minister wants to get up and confirm that it is the site that the government will start to do all its work on for the new convention centre then so be it.

But what we have got is a minister who will not commit to this project. I think that is the shame. He has now been in charge of this for several years. He does not have an idea of what sort of body it will be. He just said, “I do not know.” Mr Hanson said, “So what body will it be?” He said, “I do not know.” So what is driving this? What keeps this moving along? Not a great deal, it would seem.

The minister asks, “What is the detail of the trust?” If you want me to detail the sort of trust that I would set up I am quite happy to do that. But as I said when, for instance, we moved the amendment for the costs of living in the FMA, it really—

Mr Barr: Four and a half minutes; tell me.

MR SMYTH: is for the government to decide—

MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, could I ask you to sit down, please? Mr Barr, you have been warned. You have ignored the warning. Under standing order 203, after having been warned and still persisting, I name you and put the question:

That Mr Barr be suspended from the service of the Assembly.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 8		Noes 7
Mr Coe	Ms Lawder	Mr Barr	Mr Corbell
Mr Doszpot	Mr Rattenbury	Ms Berry	Ms Gallagher
Mr Hanson	Mr Smyth	Dr Bourke	Mr Gentleman
Mrs Jones	Mr Wall	Ms Burch

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Mr Barr was therefore suspended at 4.45 pm for three sitting hours in accordance with standing order 204, and he accordingly withdrew from the chamber.

MR SMYTH: What I was saying was that when we did the amendment to the Financial Management Act to establish the cost of living reporting, we allowed the government the flexibility to report in any way it wanted. That is why I have simply said “a trust” in this way. If I wanted to legislate for a trust, I would bring forward my own legislation, but I deliberately did it this way to allow the government the flexibility to set up the trust that would suit their needs.

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