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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 789 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 14 October 2020 by Mr D.C. Nalder

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

JOBS AND UNEMPLOYMENT — 2020–21 STATE BUDGET

789. Mr D.C. NALDER to the Treasurer:

I have a supplementary question. Is the higher unemployment rate forecast over the next four years and the lack of a jobs plan a reflection of the Treasurer's flawed economic policies in the first three years and that now he has simply run out of ideas?

Mr B.S. WYATT replied:

If I can remind the house now that I have the opportunity, when I became Treasurer, the member for Bateman, as Minister for Finance, never once oversaw growth in the domestic economy.

Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bateman, you get only two goes.

Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.

Mr B.S. WYATT: He was sacked fairly quickly—the member for Bateman is right—and he would get sacked if he treated his ministerial role as a get-rich-quick scheme.

Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bateman, I call you for the first and second time.

Mr B.S. WYATT: When he treated his ministerial role as a get-rich-quick scheme, I am not surprised he was sacked.

Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Hold on, member. I am writing down the calls to order. Crikey! I am an old man. Another point of order. Do not overdo it!

Point of Order

Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP: I am trying not to over-egg it, Mr Speaker. I believe the Treasurer is impugning the reputation of the member for Bateman and I ask him —

The SPEAKER: In what way? Sorry, I did not hear it.

Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP: I will not get into it. It will not bear repeating, then, Mr Speaker.

Questions without Notice Resumed

Mr B.S. WYATT: It was not me who sacked the member for Bateman; it was former Premier Colin Barnett. It was not me. He sacked the member for Bateman because the member thought that being a minister was a chance to get rich quick. When one does that, to the credit of the former member for Cottesloe, Colin Barnett, he was not going to stomach that and I am not surprised. But the reality is when I became Treasurer, we had had four years with no domestic growth in the economy—none, zero, zip. We have turned that around.

The Leader of the Opposition does not understand that because she started her speech saying that we were in a domestic recession. That was wrong, again. The problem that I find with Liberal Party members is that they can be given the facts and Australian Bureau of Statistics data and they will look at it and still not understand it. I suspect that is why we ended up with record debt, record deficits and record domestic recession under its time.

Mrs L.M. HARVEY: Point of order.

Ms R. SAFFIOTI: How would you know? You have not been here.

Several members interjected.

The SPEAKER: Members! I will hear this in silence.

Withdrawal of Remark

Mrs L.M. HARVEY: Under standing order 92, the Treasurer stood there and said that the member for Bateman saw his opportunity as a minister of the Crown to get rich quickly. That is a significant imputation on the character of the member for Bateman and I ask that the Treasurer withdraw.

The SPEAKER: I did not hear that.

Mr D.A. TEMPLEMAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr D.A. TEMPLEMAN: Mr Speaker, there is no point of order with regard to the Leader of the Opposition. That is absolutely not the context of the Treasurer's comments.

The SPEAKER: I listened and I did not hear what the Leader of the Opposition said was said. Therefore, I can only rule on what I heard and I did not think I heard anything, Leader of the Opposition. If I did, I would have stopped him.

Mr B.S. WYATT: If the Leader of the Opposition was here for question time, she would have heard it all. She was outside getting her photos done.

The SPEAKER: Members! Treasurer!

Mr B.S. Wyatt interjected.

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, I call you to order for the first time.

Several members interjected.

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, I call you to order for the second time. Leader of the Opposition, I call you to order for the first time. Let me finish writing out my book.