Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 925 ..

MR OSBORNE: I ask a supplementary question. Minister, have any Government members, their staff or their friends had free meals at the hotel school recently; and, if so, how many?

MR STEFANIAK: As far as I am aware, Mr Speaker, a number of Government members have been to the hotel school for a number of purposes and a number of functions in the course of their responsibilities as Government members. As far as I know also, a number of other members have gone to the hotel school and supported it. I would say, Mr Speaker, that it has an excellent kitchen, although it is certainly not the cheapest in town. I went there with a colleague, and we had a very nice meal. Whilst it is certainly not the cheapest place to eat, the meal was of excellent quality. I could certainly recommend the kitchen to anyone who would like to go there, because at the time I went there recently it was excellent.

Mr De Domenico: Mr Wood and Mr Whitecross enjoyed it too, and it was not free.

MR STEFANIAK: It certainly was not. In terms of exact numbers, I would not have those details available for you, Mr Osborne, but - - -

Members interjected.

MR SPEAKER: Order! We might be discussing food; but this is not a smorgasbord of interjections.

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Osborne, I think I have answered your question. In terms of going to the hotel school, you might like to go there and sample its wares. It certainly has a very good kitchen.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Has the Office of Financial Management done any modelling or other assessments on the likely effects of the loss of jobs in the Federal Public Service and the ACT Public Service on the ACT economy, and specifically on revenue from conveyancing, land sales and payroll tax?

MRS CARNELL: I am not 100 per cent sure what the member opposite is actually after. OFM constantly does modelling on projections. In fact, as Ms Follett would know, we have an area in OFM that simply does modelling on revenue projections all of the time. It was interesting to hear Mr Wood yet again come up with the spurious comment that somehow things have chronically changed. I have already made the comment that 18,000 redundancies from the Australian Public Service were offered under the previous Labor Government. Was modelling done under those circumstances? Of course it was done. I assume that it was. Maybe you should ask Ms Follett and those opposite. The reality is that I do not believe that the Howard Government has processed any redundancies at this stage - maybe a couple at the very senior management level - so it is extremely difficult to determine.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .