Page 1363 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
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MR SMYTH: Well, we will see what you have done when you table it tomorrow. Prove me wrong.
Ms Gallagher: I have told you what you are getting.
MR SMYTH: Prove me wrong: drop the analysis of all the other options. Give us a list of all the other options. Show us the work that you did. You are the one with an enormous department—indeed, you are the one with the enormous brain—show us your ideas. Tell us all—
Ms Gallagher: We are not going to negotiate through the Assembly. That is what you are asking us to do—and we won’t do it.
MR SMYTH: We are not asking you to negotiate through the Assembly, minister. You have got no defence so you attack the individual. You come in here and say: “You are lazy, blah, blah, blah. You have got no ideas, blah, blah, blah.” If we stand up to this government, we get bullied. You have got a new deal on the table and we would like to know some details. We would like to know how you got to that position. We would like to know what it is that makes you think that this deal will work and is better for the people of the ACT. But we are not getting that information. I doubt we will ever get that information.
We do, of course, have the revelation of the government’s new policy—that they will not invest in assets they do not own. And that has enormous implications for so many community groups in this territory, and it would be interesting to see that policy made clear. I have got a press release here from 4 March 2009 from Mr Corbell where he says:
The Government has also pledged $30 million towards the construction of a solar power facility.
One would expect that the majority of that will have to be cash. If you add up the things that you might give that are non-cash, there might be the land, you might have a rates holiday, a payroll tax holiday, a fees and charges holiday—that is not going to amount to $30 million. So how is it that we can put $30 million into a solar-powered facility, which will affect the bottom line, and that is okay, but you cannot put money into a hospital because it does affect the bottom line?
Why do you not—
Ms Gallagher: $200 million, Brendan—a little bit different.
MR SMYTH: So $30 million is okay but $200 million is not. That is okay; if that is your argument, that is fine.
Ms Gallagher: A little bit different in the impact on the bottom line. Come on!
MR SMYTH: So it is the scale and where it is going—that is fine—and the organisation. It is the scale, the size and the organisation: okay. That is interesting. So,
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