Page 2730 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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It is quite reasonable that we know how much you are going to spend. We can conclude a couple of things as a result of these non-answers. One is that the budget process is guesswork. It is guesswork, just as Katy Gallagher told us it was some time ago. It is guesswork. They ask for a bucket of money and then they figure it out later.
The other conclusion is that they have got something to hide. They are embarrassed about how much they are going to be spending on travel. They are embarrassed about how much they are going to be spending on hospitality. What is so embarrassing about these answers? There is only one of two conclusions that can be reached. Either they have not done the work, which they should have done. They should be prepared to come to the Assembly prior to us voting on this budget. They should be able to tell us what they are going to spend our money on. But they will not.
So we can assume either that they did not bother to do the work—they just guessed and they made wild estimates as to how much money they would need. But I give our public servants far more credit than that. They would not allow a process like that, even if a minister wanted it. Therefore, we can only conclude that the minister has something to hide. Come out and answer these questions. The Chief Minister should come back during the budget debate and answer these questions. They are legitimate questions about expenditure in this year’s budget.
We have had a lot of whining. We had it from the planning minister from time to time. We had it from the Chief Minister. We had it from Katy Gallagher on various issues: “How does this relate to the budget?” Firstly, every area of government activity relates to the budget because it needs to be funded. Secondly, when we ask specific questions about this year’s budget and about how much they will be spending, they refuse to answer them. They refuse to answer them either because they are inept or because they have something to hide.
I commend the Attorney-General on answering this question, although I have not looked at all the questions to the Attorney-General. I commend the Attorney-General for actually bothering to answer the question. Now maybe the Attorney-General can get up and tell us why he is able to answer this question and the Chief Minister cannot or will not. This goes to the heart of this budget process. We should be able to expect these answers. The Assembly deserves these answers and the Chief Minister should come back prior to this budget being voted on and give us some of these details.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability and Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections) (5.20): I wanted to address a couple of things and to discuss some of the things that Mr Seselja just said. I also want to talk a little about the industrial relations component within the Chief Minister’s Department’s appropriation.
I noticed Mr Seselja swaggering out and doing his Paul Osborne imitation. In fact, he was accusing the government of either being inept or having conspiracies. Having such a fixation on conspiracy theories is decidedly unhealthy, Madam Deputy Speaker. It can really eat you away inside and can sometimes explain why there is that depth of hatred that resides within that body. However, Mr Seselja, as chair of the committee,
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