Page 547 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Lamont, you have 10 seconds.
MR LAMONT (4.15): That will be long enough, Madam Speaker. My apple-cheeked old grandmother said that people who live in grass houses should not stow thrones, and that should be the motto by which the Opposition members have this matter hung around their necks. The simple reality is that experience has proven that the introduction of a GST in New Zealand and in Canada has seen massive unemployment problems as a result. It has seen massive decimation of employment prospects for people who are unemployed. There will be a $10 billion shortfall in the figures from John Hewson because the sale of Telecom will not be able to raise $20 billion. Making up that shortfall that the GST will introduce will mean more people on the dole queues.
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I ask for your leave to make a personal explanation under standing order 46.
Leave granted.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, in question time today Mr De Domenico, in the course of asking me a question about the TAB, said that he was quoting from a letter which he said was sent from an accountant to the Acting Under Treasurer.
Mr De Domenico: No, I did not say "accountant". I said "a letter sent to the Acting Under Treasurer".
MS FOLLETT: He quoted from a letter sent to the Acting Under Treasurer. Madam Speaker, I am advised that Mr Woods, who was then the Acting Under Treasurer, has no recollection of ever receiving such a letter. The Treasury records reveal no record of such a letter being received.
Mr De Domenico: They have lost it.
MS FOLLETT: Table it. I did not think you would.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
Debate resumed from 17 December 1992, on motion by Mr Berry:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR DE DOMENICO (4.17): Madam Speaker - - -
Mr Berry: "What am I doing on my feet?", he asks.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, I am not. I am doing the Workers' Compensation (Amendment) Bill 1992 and the Opposition, the Liberal Party, will not be opposing this Bill. It is very good legislation. Mr Lamont would recall that in 1983 a committee was set up by the then Minister, Mr Tom Uren, to look into the workers compensation situation.
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