Bills

Statutes Amendment and Repeal (Budget Measures) Bill

Committee Stage

Debate resumed.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I think Mr Dini Soulio is known as Mr Dini 'The Great Consulter' Soulio, at least in informal circles in the public sector. You can rest assured that any review that he or his people are involved with will involve the opportunity for consultation with key stakeholders and members of parliament, and indeed anybody else with interests. Certainly, from the government's viewpoint, you can be assured that there will be appropriate consultation with all interested stakeholders.

Clause passed.

Remaining clauses (68 to 146) and title passed.

Bill reported with amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (12:43): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

In doing so, I want to make some brief comments. I thank honourable members for their general support for the passage of the bill with the exception of the key opposition to the provision for the abolition of the position of the Commissioner for Kangaroo Island. As a member of the Legislative Council who sat on the other side of the benches in opposition in the last budget, I was roundly criticised for having supported, as did other members in this chamber, the lawful entitlement of the Legislative Council to make amendments to budget bills, in that particular case on the bank tax.

I note that contrary to the protestations of the now Leader of the Opposition, and indeed other Labor members—to be fair to at least the Greens, their position has remained consistent on this—the Legislative Council does have the lawful entitlement to amend budget measures as long as it is prepared to accept the public criticism, if there is any, in relation to the decisions it makes. However, I do put on the public record the hypocrisy of the Labor Party on this issue.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You reap what you sow. You broke the convention; you're paying for it.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I am acknowledging that the Legislative Council has the lawful entitlement to vote to amend budget bills. That was our position in opposition, and in government I acknowledge the lawful entitlement of the Legislative Council to act in the same way. The hypocrisy rests with the Labor Party, because the Labor Party in government said, 'This is an outrage, it has never happened before and you should never do it.' The Labor Party, at the very first opportunity, has voted, as the Hansard record shows, to amend a budget bill, contrary to all the claims they made in government, that this was an outrage, that it should not be done by the Legislative Council.

My position, and the government's position more particularly, is clear: the government has acknowledged when in government that the Legislative Council does have the right. We will oppose the provision, as we did, because we believed it was wrong in terms of the principle that was involved—that is, whether or not there was a need for a Commissioner for Kangaroo Island—but in relation to whether or not the Legislative Council has the power, we acknowledge that power, and that is the same position that we adopted in opposition; that is, that the Legislative Council did have the power to amend budget—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Only recently.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: No, not recently. I refer the Hon. Mr Hunter to the speech I gave where I listed more than a dozen occasions over the 150-year history of the Legislative Council when budget bills had been amended by Labor and Liberal oppositions, with the support of crossbenchers in most cases.

The never-never land in which the Hon. Mr Hunter and the Labor Party exist is not supported by facts. The facts have been placed on the record in the last budget debate. I acknowledge that on this occasion again the Labor Party, contrary to the claims they made, has committed, in their view, the outrage of amending a budget bill in the Legislative Council. With that, I thank honourable members for their support for the third reading of the bill, with the exception of that particular opposition.

Bill read a third time and passed.

Sitting suspended from 12:48 to 14:15.