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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-16 Daily Xml
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MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:21): My question is to the Treasurer.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: I'll do it.

Mr WILLIAMS: You'll do it? I don't know how you can, actually.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: I reckon I could answer it at least as good as you ask it.

Mr WILLIAMS: At least as good as he will, because I'm not really expecting an answer. Here he comes.

The Hon. K.O. Foley: I had to go to the men's room; I'm sorry.

Mr WILLIAMS: The boys' room, you mean? The little boys' room. Did the Treasurer seek advice from the social justice commissioner, Monsignor David Cappo, prior to taking the decision to cancel the redevelopment of a replacement facility for the Magill Training Centre and, if not, why not?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (15:21): I have been asked these questions on radio. No, I did not seek the advice of Monsignor David Cappo.

Ms Chapman: He'll be on your new commission.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Very clever; she's right. He will be on our new commission. It was not a difficult thing to understand or to predict or to be aware of what Monsignor Cappo's view would be. That was a decision taken by cabinet, on recommendation of the Treasurer, as something had to give.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: You cannot lose $1 billion a year of revenue and still sustain the level of capital expenditure that we had on the books largely committed to prior to the global financial meltdown. In the leader's budget speech today, he has been running around saying these silly statements that we actually have an extra $3 billion a year from the commonwealth. What the Rudd Labor government and state premiers signed up to earlier in the year was the next five-year rolling program of special purpose payments that were ongoing payments streams.

Yes, we got more in health than we had anticipated, and it all went to activity. It was spent as soon as we got it towards activity. We did get a bit more for education. In some areas, I think you might find we just dipped a little bit. So, they were ongoing programs. It is quite misleading to suggest that that was somehow an untied grant given to the government and could substitute for loss of revenue. That is just nonsensical; it is wrong, wrong, wrong. It just again demonstrates a lack of understanding of the basics of budget reporting. The decision to cancel those programs was a difficult one. It is a difficult decision for the ministers involved; it was a difficult decision for Monsignor David Cappo.

Ms Chapman: You didn't ask him!

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs Redmond: You just said you didn't ask him. You did!

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I'm missing the joke in all of this.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: I don't think he enjoyed the decision, whether he was asked or not.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: No. It was a decision taken by government that did not please many people but, when you are in government and you are faced with challenges, you either have the capacity to make hard decisions or you wimp out and the state becomes worse off for it. We have demonstrated that we have the political courage, the political will, the financial acumen to deliver on what we promise when it comes to good budget management.

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