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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2341 ..

MR WOOD: You were saying, "We have agreed; we have satisfied people". I wonder whether Mr Anforth, then from the ACT Council of Social Service, also gave great approval to this, or did the Chief Minister, as I suspect, simply sit and take notes and listen and say, "Yes, yes, yes", and go away and ignore all that was said? That seems clearly to be the case.

Mr Whitecross: The same as she did to the Assembly.

MR WOOD: Yes, it happens all the time. I recall that Ms Follett said that the budget was very secretive. Indeed it is a secretive budget. It is only over a period of time that we come to see where all these disastrous cuts are located. It is not an open document, and there is deliberate evasion within that budget. Mrs Carnell has said on many occasions that the managers will manage. In a sense, that is happening. As the Education Union found out, it is only by going into discussion with managers that they find out where these cuts are.

On Tuesday, there was a question from Mr Kaine to the Chief Minister, a dorothy dixer, which indicated again how the Chief Minister is obscuring all these issues, how she is evading them and distorting the figures. Mrs Carnell, in response to Mr Kaine, endeavoured to show that, no matter which way you looked at it, education expenditure has gone up this year over last year. She is simply wrong. On her figures, quickly analysed, she is wrong. She said that the starting line carrying over from 1994-95 was $192.2m. That takes out the preschools because they had been located elsewhere. She took out the preschools because they had been located elsewhere, but she did not want to take out of the equation new programs coming into education. She did not make a similar move for those. She wanted to take the preschools out, quite properly, but she put in new functions - - -

Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: The Appropriation Bill debate is currently in recess until, hopefully, later today. We have not yet even addressed the line item of education in that appropriation debate. Surely the member is anticipating that debate.

MR SPEAKER: I caution all members not to anticipate debate on the Appropriation Bill later this day.

MR WOOD: Mr Kaine was not listening or he is seeking also to evade the issue.

Mr Kaine: You are out of order.

MR WOOD: I certainly am not. This is a censure motion. I do not know what you are listening to, but the motion I am discussing is a motion of censure of the Chief Minister for not agreeing with the wishes of this Assembly and her claims of consultation with the broader community.

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