Page 2403 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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Answer to question on notice
Question 320
MR BARR: I understand that after question time the Assembly passed a resolution seeking information from me in relation to a question on notice from a member of the opposition. I can advise the Assembly that the question from the Leader of the Opposition relates to government funding for the Canberra Business Chamber over a five-year period. It has been brought to my attention that the Canberra Business Chamber has in fact not been in existence for that period. So we have some difficulty in answering Mr Coe’s question as it seeks information in relation to an entity that did not exist for a period of the question Mr Coe asked.
I can choose to interpret the question for the period that the Canberra Business Chamber was in existence. Mr Coe might provide some guidance by way of whether his question would then seek information on the entities that were in existence before the Canberra Business Chamber, because there was more than one during the time that he has sought information on in relation to government funding. Mr Coe also sought information on every area and every agency and every part of government in relation to an organisation that did not exist for most of the period that he sought information on in his question.
For those reasons, it is difficult for me to answer the question. I can seek to provide information for the years that the Canberra Business Chamber has been in existence. It is possible that Mr Coe may wish to resubmit a question in relation to the entities that were in existence prior to the establishment of the Canberra Business Chamber. From memory, that was the Canberra Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Canberra Business Council, although there may have been other organisations that were drawn into what is now the Canberra Business Chamber.
It might be best for me to proceed with an answer for the years where the entity actually has been in existence, and then Mr Coe can submit a further question in relation to government funding for entities that now no longer exist. That would make it easier for the government to seek to answer his question. But that is the reason for the delay.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition), by leave: I appreciate the Treasurer taking nine weeks to come to this revelation. If he would like to provide information according to that assumption which he gave at the end, that is, since the organisation was established, then that is fine by me.
Standing orders—suspension
Motion (by Ms Berry) agreed to, with the concurrence of an absolute majority:
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Ms Orr from moving the motion standing on the Notice Paper in Ms Cody’s name, relating to gender equality in sport.
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