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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-24 Daily Xml
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MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): To save the government from further embarrassment, I will not direct my question to the Minister for Families and Communities but I will direct it instead to the Premier.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: You knew she wasn't going to be here; you are just making it up.

Mrs REDMOND: I assumed that the Minister for Families and Communities—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: My question is to the Premier. Why has it taken 7½ years to find $9 million to upgrade the youth training centres when the government has spent between $200 million and $300 million on government advertising; and does this show that your government has the wrong priorities?

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) (14:40): I cannot remember the Leader of the Opposition asking questions about the Magill Training Centre.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I know about your interest in juvenile justice because I remember you going to the rave party with Sandra Kanck, and I remember what you said about ecstasy when you came out of the rave party.

Mr GRIFFITHS: I have a point of order, sir. This has no relevance to the question asked by the leader.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Settle petals! As I have said before to the house, if I indulge the member asking the question in terms of debate, I will provide a similar indulgence to the minister in answering it. That is what I am doing. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Just remember this: somehow a Liberal government, we are told, would not spend money on government advertising—which means there would be not be government advertising warning people to slow down and not drink and drive. There would not be government advertising warning people to be careful about bushfires and bushfire prevention. There would be not be government advertising about the Lotteries Commission. Mind you, that is probably because the opposition intended to privatise the Lotteries Commission.

But I do remember the previous Liberal government spending—if I am accurate—around $100 million on a handful of consultants to sell ETSA even though they went to the previous election saying, 'No, never, full stop.' That is the quote; we remember that very clearly.

If you are telling me that you will not run job advertisements, maybe that is because you do not have a priority about jobs. There are two AAMI stadiums more jobs in this state than there were under the Liberals. So the opposition would scrap the tender ads, it would scrap the ads for job advertisements and it would scrap the ads for health care. All those things will be gone but, suddenly, they have discovered the Magill Training Centre.

I heard someone this morning offensively comparing it to a concentration camp in World War II—which is absolutely the most deeply offensive thing. Clearly, that person has never read a history book or visited Auschwitz, like I did last December. It is absolutely offensive.

We know that you are really angry. The anger yesterday when we announced that we were funding the demolition of Magill and the building of a new youth training centre, we could feel an absolute gale storm of anger. What we were hearing across the table—I was not sure whether it was some kind of historical analogy going back to Roman times—was, 'What a gall!' Anyway, it is the first time I have been accused of being both French and Celtic on the same day.

What we heard was anger because you do not like it if we do what you have been calling for. The fact is that we announced we would demolish Magill. It was part of a $600 million new prison facility. You would have gone ahead with it, even if it completely ruined the AAA credit rating and damaged the state's finances—because you are not responsible.

I could not believe it yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition—in a historic moment—stood up and asked me about our polling. Talk about absolutely bizarre. She stood up and asked what our polling showed. I told you what our polling showed. Our polling shows that you are not fit to govern. That is what the polling says. It describes you as a divided rabble.

Mr WILLIAMS: On a point of order—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will take his seat.

Mr WILLIAMS: —I do not think that the Premier should be saying that you are unfit to govern, Mr Speaker. I think you are very fit.

The SPEAKER: I'll live with it. The member for Reynell.

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