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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-14 Daily Xml
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PARKS COMMUNITY CENTRE

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (15:19): My question is to the Attorney-General: does the Attorney-General agree with the Treasurer's statement, made on 7 October during estimates and repeated in this house today, regarding the decision to close the Parks Community Centre? He said, 'It was a unanimous decision of cabinet. There was no dissenting voice.'

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (15:20): The Attorney-General, you would hope—

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Madam Speaker. Whilst I know that any minister can answer any question, I fail to see how the Treasurer can possibly answer a question about whether the Attorney-General agrees with a statement. The question was: does the Attorney-General agree with the statement?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Madam Speaker—

The SPEAKER: I have not given a ruling on that. It is up to any minister to answer the question; it is up to the government to answer any question, and I do not think it is really relevant in his role as Attorney-General. I will not uphold that point of order.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The Attorney-General is not responsible for the Parks ; she should have asked the minister responsible or me as Treasurer. You have to understand how things work here. As I have said—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —it was a very hard budget, a budget in which we wish we did not have to take a number of decisions that we had to. As the Premier quite rightly pointed out, the government is about difficult, hard decisions, and a capable, experienced government can make difficult, hard decisions.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, deputy leader!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: We have seen, as a result of this budget, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's reaffirming our AAA credit rating. I have met with Moody's, and Moody's I would expect to reaffirm our AAA credit rating.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I rise on a point of order as to relevance. Even if the Treasurer is going to answer on behalf of the Attorney-General, the question was specifically about the Attorney-General's opinion of what the Treasurer said; it had nothing to do with trying to re-justify the budget.

The SPEAKER: Sit down, member for Stuart. There is no point of order there. The cabinet is of one mind, and any minister can answer.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: We are of one mind and of one voice. We are one voice; we are one voice. The reality is that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —difficult decisions to maintain a AAA credit rating are the hard work of government.

Mr PENGILLY: I rise on a point of order, namely, 128, Madam Speaker. The AAA credit rating has nothing to do with the question that was asked of the Attorney-General.

The SPEAKER: No, I do not uphold that point of order. The Treasurer is answering in a very roundabout way, but he is getting to his answer and it is relevant, I think. Have you finished Treasurer? Good.

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