Page 2265 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Smyth?
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, what was the purpose of signing up to the agreement if Western Australia will receive equivalent funding without surrendering 50 per cent of its GST?
MS GALLAGHER: I am not certain what the current state of negotiations is with WA. But we are not handing over—and this is something that they failed to understand over 44 pages of the Hansard. The money is coming to the ACT. The GST that we were going to get, we will still get, and it will go to funding the local hospital network. The money that we currently do not use to fund health out of the GST will go into other areas of government operation. So we have not lost a cent, we have gained a lot of money and we are going to put in place structures and systems that we hope will improve nationally the public healthcare system, not just here in the ACT but around the region and around the country.
MR HARGREAVES: Supplementary, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. My supplementary to the minister is: was not this issue about the amount of money that the ACT had supposedly lost in GST litigated in the context of the estimates committee evidence, and was not the position of the Liberal Party debunked at that time?
MS GALLAGHER: I do believe you are correct, Mr Hargreaves.
Mr Hanson: I have a point of order on the question, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Stop the clocks, thank you.
Mr Hanson: Again this is a vexatious question. The question that was asked was about the status of the national health agreement since the funding authority was scrapped by the federal government. The original question did not relate to the question that Mr Hargreaves just asked. It is clearly out of order, again.
Mr Hargreaves: On the point of order, Mr Speaker, I was following along from the supplementary asked by Mr Smyth, who talked about the GST in Western Australia.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, the question is in order.
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Hargreaves remains correct: it was discussed at length and the Liberal Party failed to understand it, for their own political purposes.
Capital works—budget
MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Chief Minister as Minister for Territory and Municipal Services. Minister, the Department of Territory and Municipal
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