Question Time

ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): Has the Premier already breached the Prime Minister's demand that the states not use the federal government's economic stimulus package for projects already identified for state funding? The Prime Minister has stated publicly today that his government would have 'zero tolerance for states that cut spending because it made no sense for his government to increase its efforts when states are scaling back spending in order to repair their own budget bottom lines', but the Premier today announced funding for a gymnasium at Parkside Primary School. The school has been seeking state government funding for a gymnasium for the past seven years. Last year it was given approval for inclusion in the state's capital works assistance scheme, and funding was subject to final assessment of the costings of the project. This morning the school received a phone call from the Premier's office advising that the Premier would be running down to the school and that there needed to be lots of children there for a big announcement.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:20): Fantastic! Can I just say, 'Come in spinner!' What we have heard today is that the Liberal Party of Australia opposes this money going out to schools. So the Liberals, presumably supported by their local MP David Pisoni, do not support these schools getting this money. I guess that is the point: I cannot believe the Leader of the Opposition would have raised this question. We have in Canberra—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Now listen to me—

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: We have in Canberra a Liberal leader, Malcolm Turnbull, a former merchant banker, a multimillionaire—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Of course, we know that he hired the former governor-general's butler. He is just an ordinary Australian—just chuck another couple of truffles on the barbie, Jeeves—just an ordinary Australian. He is leading the Liberals' fight against this stimulus package. My plea to the Liberals is: instead of worrying about your merchant banker mates, worry about the people of Australia. Worry about jobs for real people, not phoneys like Malcolm Turnbull, who only care about their multimillionaire mates. If you were fair dinkum you would be standing up here today and demanding that your—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —federal Liberal leader come out and act for Australia, put his country before his party, because what we are faced with is the economic equivalent of war.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Members opposite think it is funny. Go and tell that to small business people, to people being laid off around the country—and remember, it was the merchant bankers in Wall Street who gave themselves massive payouts when they should be in gaol, because they caused this damage around the world. My challenge to the Liberal Party is—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Unley!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —to make a choice: put your country before your party.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Put your state before your party. Instead of playing games, listen to the real people of Australia and back real people's jobs. Can I just say—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Unley is warned.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: You have the gall to criticise us on infrastructure. You were a member of cabinet, and I compare what we do in infrastructure to when you were a member of cabinet during that brief shining hour when you glowed, before you started stabbing your mates in the back. We remember that now we have six times the infrastructure spend under the Liberals.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: I rise on a point of order. I know we do not expect a lot more from the Premier, but I think he is both debating and not being relevant to the question in his reply.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is now debating.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I have a point of order. I ask whether the explanation offered by the Leader of the Opposition was in itself debate and invited debate, and does it not sit ill in the mouths of these whited sepulchres to take a point of order?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport makes a valid point, and I have given the Premier a fair bit of scope in his answer. I now draw him back to the question.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Thank you, sir. He talks about Parkside Primary School. Well, I know that none of the members of the media up there got on the phone to you, because they would have told you what the principal actually said about the project; they would have told you about how the school community had to go through a process of consultation to say what it wanted.

I make this guarantee today to this house that we will not be involved in substitution, and I totally welcome the Prime Minister's announcement that any state that tries to withdraw its funding in order to get federal funding should be named and shamed. It will not be this state. In fact—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: On Friday—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I have called the house to order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Once again, the Leader of the Opposition has made a premature declaration. We know he has a problem in that regard in relation to Frome. But the point of the matter is that he should talk to the principal of the school, because when we rolled out the School Pride project we set the template for the rest of Australia. I simply ask members of this parliament and the public to compare our infrastructure spend with that of the Liberals—six times the infrastructure spend.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Not twice, not three: six.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Not twice. Not in league with inflation—3 per cent a year over six years—but six times the infrastructure spend when you were in government because you do not give a damn about public schools, public hospitals or public transport. You had the gall to raise the issue of the fiscal stimulus of the federal government when you are opposed to it. I will be writing to every school saying, 'By the way, your local Liberal MP does not support your school getting this federal money'—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —'because you have to sort it out yourselves.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!