Page 12 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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It is an attribution of costs as between the VFT consortium on the one hand and the States and Territories on the other. Where those costs will ultimately fall will depend on how much they are, to what they are attributed and what negotiations can be undertaken to shift the burden from the Government to the private sector; from the private sector back on to the consortium; perhaps even some of it on to the Commonwealth Government. So at this stage - - -
Ms Follett: Funding priorities, that is what you said.
MR KAINE: For a Leader of the Opposition, who endorsed this project in principle towards the end of last year, to come out now and talk it down as though even an investment of $30m is somehow reprehensible in anticipation of a $1 billion return, leaves me absolutely speechless.
Executive Deputies
MRS GRASSBY: Would the Chief Minister advise the Assembly of the cost of moving the Executive Deputies from the Assembly precinct to the executive section of the fifth floor of this building?
MR KAINE: No, I cannot because there has been, as yet, no such move. Arrangements are in hand to move the members of the Government to the fifth floor so that we can do our business better. There has been a tentative floor plan drawn up which I have endorsed.
Mr Wood: Public servants shifted out.
MR KAINE: That is right. The members of the ACT Administration have moved off the floor. And, interestingly enough, that has to do with the principle that the Opposition seems to be pressing so hard now, but which it did not recognise while it was in government - that is the separation of Executive, the judiciary and the legislature. The previous Government had no difficulty whatever in having its senior public servants on the floor with it. We happen to believe that to have the senior public servants at arm's length from the political government is a good thing and we believe that it is in the best interests of good government that those moves are being made. We are moving public servants off the fifth floor and we are moving executive deputies and their staffs onto the fifth floor. The costs will be minimal and when I know what those costs are, I undertake to inform you.
MRS GRASSBY: I ask a supplementary question. Can the Chief Minister tell us where the money for this move is coming from and what programs will be cut to pay for these costs?
MR KAINE: No programs will be cut, Mr Speaker. We are still working within the budget put in place by the present
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