Page 1825 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BARR: Again, it speaks volumes about those opposite and their commitment to this issue—
Mrs Jones interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Jones!
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot, I have just called people to order. I do not need you to interject. Mr Barr has the call.
MR BARR: Thank you, Madam Speaker. On this side of the chamber, we remain committed to supporting this funding package and to funding it in the way that the government proposes, and we will be voting for both the budget appropriation and the levy when we come to debate the legislation later in this parliamentary term.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Chief Minister, why has the government decided to apply a flat levy such that all households, depending on their income, pay the same, when clearly some in this community have a greater ability to pay than others?
MR BARR: Mr Smyth would be aware that the mechanism for collecting this particular levy means that those in public housing and those who do not own property—lower income earners in particular—would be excluded.
Trade unions—memorandum of understanding
MR WALL: My question is to the Chief Minister. On 16 March 2016 in an ABC online article concerning the MOU between UnionsACT and the ACT Labor government you argued that the agreement with the unions had not been done in secrecy. You said, “It was released initially in 2005, when the former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope signed the original document.” You said on the government’s cabinet accessible website that the documents concerning that cabinet decision—namely, decision 1,641 and decision 1,667—are listed as publicly available. The opposition has twice requested copies of those documents, once on 7 April and again on 6 May, yet these documents have not been released. Chief Minister, what are you hiding about the MOU with the unions in these documents?
MR BARR: Nothing.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Wall.
MR WALL: Chief Minister, what is the point of having a website listing available cabinet documents if the documents are not being provided when requested?
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