TRADE PROMOTION, PUGLIA REGION

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (15:10): My question is again to the Premier—and I hope that the Premier, and not the Treasurer, answers it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Did he personally intervene outside of or within cabinet during the budget process in any form to protect taxpayer funding to Puglia and was this one of the tough decisions taken by the Premier in the budget? The Premier said he had been through the Sustainable Budget Commission's report—which recommended the Puglia funding be cut—line by line. He also told the house on 14 October 2010:

...the people of this state want governments that make tough decisions, that have the courage to take the tough decisions—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport, be quiet.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: And loving it, he said—and loving it!

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) (15:11): I make no apologies for the fact that our cabinet rejected the Sustainable Budget Commission's recommendations to close a whole swag of hospitals, because that would have been a dumb thing to do, and I also make no apologies for the fact that funding for the forward estimates for the Fiera have also been cut.