Page 2465 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007

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Then we have the mock outrage attack from Mr Hargreaves, which amounted to a gunna: “I am gunna do something about it but I am still seeking a bit of advice.” If members are going to come in here and say that members have misled the community or implied that in some way, through either negligence or malfeasance, members of the estimates committee misled the Assembly in their dissenting comments, they need to have a bit more substance to their arguments than he did. The idea “I might do something but I am still seeking advice”, some six sitting days after this came to his attention, is a bit on the thin side. And there are some bits of the letter that Mr Hargreaves tabled that he did not read out.

Mr Hargreaves: Let’s hear it. I’ll put it up—

MRS DUNNE: At no stage has anyone said, “This is an equivocal, ironclad guarantee that our boys in green are going to come in and build a Bailey bridge.” No-one has ever said that. But there were offers. This is the offer:

With the advice available, it is not possible to make a firm commitment to assisting the community of Tharwa with their bridging difficulties. However, there are a number of options—

which Mr Hargreaves read out. The letter continued:

The community will need to consider the options then formally apply for the option that best suits the town. The ADF may be able to support …

I understand that Mr Pratt wrote to Mr Hargreaves and suggested that he could write to Dr Nelson and make an application for some assistance from the Department of Defence. I think that has not actually happened.

While Mr Pratt has been out looking after the people of Tharwa and doing the best he can to look after their needs, all we have here today is a feeble attempt. We have a fairly extensive letter which includes the notion that the community—in this case, that is the ACT government—could apply to the defence department for assistance. Whilst there is no guarantee that assistance would be forthcoming, we do not see that this government has even had any discussions with the Department of Defence. We have this mock outrage from Mr Hargreaves, but he really has not done his homework. He thought that he had a really good one and he was going to get somebody on toast.

Mr Pratt: You’re grasping at straws, John.

MRS DUNNE: Mr Pratt is quite right: on this one he is grasping at straws.

MR BARR (Molonglo–Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (5.13): In speaking to my parts of the territory and municipal services budget, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight a number of, I believe, very important initiatives that have been funded through this budget.

In particular, I would like to draw all members’ attention to the support for our Olympic athletes as they head off to Beijing in 2008. About a month ago, I had the


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