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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 593 ..

Ms Tucker: We are talking about your responsibility.

MRS CARNELL: Just listen for a moment. I did. The reality of the situation is that right now we have expenditure review committees going on in the Federal Parliament. Right now they are putting together their budget. It is true that there are people in - - -

Ms Horodny: How do you know that there is money in that budget for this?

MRS CARNELL: Just be quiet. I was. The reality of this situation is that there are a number of people in the Federal Parliament who would love the museum to be put on hold, who would love not to fund it this year. I suggest that most of the people in Finance and Treasury would. Certainly, lots of members of parliament - members on both sides of the house - would much prefer to see the money spent in their electorates rather than in Canberra. Let us be fair; significant money being spent in Canberra is not the sort of thing that gets enormous amounts of praise in the Federal Parliament at times. Not a lot of our colleagues on both sides of the houses from other parts of Australia say, "Yes, let us spend $200m or $150m, or whatever it happens to be, on a major infrastructure project, a major museum in Canberra".

The fact is that we have a commitment from the Prime Minister. It is not just a commitment; we have a site and we have a development brief being put in place. He has made money available and he has indicated, in writing, right now - it is not an election promise - something that is happening now, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. This is really quite serious. It is something that we should not joke about. If we look like we are blinking on this, I tell you what: There are enough people - in fact, probably the majority of people - up there on the hill who will use that blink to the maximum capacity. This is not about politics, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I thought everybody in this house, and I am confident almost everyone in Canberra, wants the National Museum in our city.

Debate interrupted.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Wood): Order! It being 5 o'clock, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr Humphries: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

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