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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 1451 ..

Mr Berry: A measures statement.

MS CARNELL: That is exactly what it says, Mr Berry.

Mr Berry: It says a measures statement.

MS CARNELL: That is a cash-based budget, Mr Speaker. Now, the only thing - - -

Mr Moore: Wayne does not understand it, Kate. He has never understood it.

MS CARNELL: He has never understood; you are quite right. I think Mr Moore will agree with me that it is a silly recommendation, but at least it is about the budget. I have put a tick beside that one, not because I agree but because we said, "At least we have one that is about the budget".

Mr Speaker, the thing that was a concern to me and I think to my colleagues was the number of recommendations or comments in the report on which there was actually no questioning in the Estimates Committee. If no questions were asked, how could the Estimates Committee draw any conclusions? Time and again in this report there are examples of that. Mr Speaker, in this report there are a huge number of issues which come with extra expenditure. I do not in any way blame Mr Rugendyke or Mr Osborne for this. This was Mr Rugendyke's first opportunity to have a look at this. I have to say that in the past Mr Osborne has not been closely involved in the finances of government either. But Mr Berry has, and he should have known better.

This report is predominantly about policy. It says very little about the budget. It contains lots of recommendations or comments about which no questions were asked. The recommendations, if implemented, would produce a huge extra expenditure for the ACT without any knowledge of how to address it. Mr Berry will say, "Oh, yes, there is". In his and Mr Corbell's supplementary comments they do make some comments about where they would find the money. Poor old Mr Quinlan must have been horrified when he read them, absolutely horrified, because I think Mr Quinlan does know the difference between one-off capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure. Unfortunately, Mr Corbell and Mr Berry did not.

Mr Speaker, time and again in this place we have explained to those opposite that, regarding the $10m that we have to pay the Federal Government for the black hole, we do not pay them at all. In fact, Mr Berry, you are right; we did not pay them. We did not give them one cent, and nor did New South Wales, nor did Victoria, nor did the Northern Territory, nor did anybody. I have said it time and time again, Mr Speaker, but he - - -

Mr Moore: Did he ask you about it?

MS CARNELL: Not in the Estimates Committee, no.

Mr Berry: Yes, he did.

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