Page 1938 - Week 07 - Thursday, 31 May 1990
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Ms Follett: Have you ruled on my point of order?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, I asked Mr Kaine to be concise.
MR KAINE: If the would-be deputy Leader of the Opposition is going to raise the question, I am going to answer it. The fact is that we have a discrepancy between our revenue expectations on the one hand and our expenditure on the other. We have to reduce. I am prepared to concede to Mr Berry that the $100m is probably a bit fuzzy. It might be $120m when we finally do the figures, but the fact is that there is a major discrepancy and we have to deliver services at a much lower cost.
That is why I sought the advice of the Priorities Review Board. That is why we are looking at 120 or so recommendations that it has put to us. That is why its report includes matters such as consolidating our schools, reducing the number of public hospitals, and addressing the organisational arrangements of the Administration so that we can be much more efficient in the way that we deliver the services. The net result of it all will be to deliver services at the same standards as they have always been delivered - perhaps even better - at a considerably reduced cost compared with what we have incurred in the past.
Transport Ministers' Meeting
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, this is the third question from the Labor Party in 40 minutes because of all the waffling from members opposite. My question is directed to the Chief Minister. I refer the Chief Minister to an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald which says that, at the transport Ministers' meeting in Perth last Friday, Mr Duby's attention frequently wandered and he was in a torpid state. Has the Chief Minister determined whether Mr Duby was asleep at the conference for most of Friday morning because he was exhausted from the long journey to Perth or for some other reason? What action will the Chief Minister take to prevent Mr Duby from continuing to bring the ACT into disrepute?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, firstly I have not read the Sydney Morning Herald. Secondly, I was not in Perth when Mr Duby represented the Government there. I think what Mr Berry would like me to do is to express an opinion on something written by some journalist from the Sydney Morning Herald. I have no intention of doing so. I do not know what he said and I was not there at the time.
MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question for the Chief Minister who does not care about the ACT.
Mr Kaine: I did not say I did not care. Stop misquoting me.
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