Page 5207 - Week 12 - Thursday, 27 October 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
in the next 50-odd weeks that we have left before the election we will get on with the game so that everybody knows the rules and so that we can have a debate based on fact, based on truth, based on honesty.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.55): The government will not be objecting to the motion, but I should say to the opposition that there are no papers to table. We do not object to it. The costings of the announcements made by the Liberal Party are coming—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Hanson, before you get too excited, can you just allow me the time to explain. There were two Liberal Party staffers at the press conference recording my comments. I am sure you have got the audio there. I personally object to Liberal Party staffers coming to my press conferences, but anyway they were there and they had their recorders out. The actual audio transcript from the press conference is of me saying in relation to car registration, “You know that is a big ticket item; they are going to have to explain how they are going to fund what would be in excess of a $10 million promise.” The problem for the Liberal Party is—perhaps you need to get your facts straight before you come in and start raising a whole range of allegations around me—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Chief Minister, I ask you to direct your remarks through the chair, please.
MS GALLAGHER: is that it is a promise in excess of $10 million. In fact, I made the comments based on a conservative estimate from my experience as Treasurer that about 35—
Mr Coe interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: If I could just explain—it is a little complex. About 35 per cent of people renewing their car registration, as I understand it, renew their car registration quarterly. The budget papers clearly indicate that car registration raises around $90-odd million per annum. I presumed—perhaps I am wrong; I have not seen the detail of the Liberal Party costings—that it was more than a one-off promise; that is, that it has a recurrent hit to the budget. The comments I made in relation to $10 million were based on the fact that I guesstimated in my head that it was $2½ million a year, and therefore it would be a promise in excess of $10 million. I might say that when the costings do come in from the government, I believe it will be a promise in excess of $10 million.
They were my comments. Your staffers have it on audio. I did not use the word “annual”. It is not my problem. I had not even read Noel Towell’s article till today. I read the article, and it does have the word “annual” in it, but it is not a word that I used in that press conference. Go and ask your staffers to play the audio. The promise you made around car registration is a promise in excess of $10 million—unless it is a one-off, is it? It is a one off, $4½ million hit to the budget?
Mr Smyth: You are making it up.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video