Penola Bypass Project

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:11): Supplementary question.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Penola's redoubtable representative.

Mr WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the minister assure the house that in the answer he just gave, when he said the state government funded all of the stage 1 of the Penola bypass, he omitted to acknowledge that the local Wattle Range Council indeed funded a significant portion of that?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:12): I'm not going to be verballed by the member for MacKillop. The fact remains the federal government has not put one cent on the table for the Penola bypass. Not only has the federal member for Barker sold out the South-East but he won't even fund the Mount Gambier Airport upgrade. They are a disgrace, that Liberal Party, in the way they treat the South-East.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I take it from the Treasurer's gesticulation that he wants to make a wordless point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member asked a supplementary question. The minister began to answer it, and it was greeted with a wall of disruptive sound and, Mr Speaker, question time cannot function this way.

The SPEAKER: The minister concerned opened his answer with, 'I'm not going to be verballed by the member for MacKillop,' and therefore he accepted with equanimity the response he sought. The member for Flinders.