HUAWEI —
METRONET CONTRACT
375. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Transport:
I have a supplementary question.
Would this money have been better invested—for example, on a $240
increase in the Country Age Pension Fuel Card—instead of being wasted
on this pyrrhic exercise?
The SPEAKER: Before you
answer, minister, the supplementary question introduced a brand new topic,
which it should not, but I will ask the minister to respond briefly.
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
This
is the Leader of the Liberal Party that increased electricity prices by 97 per
cent while spending $25 million on the Metro Area Express light rail. It also
spent more than $20 million to prepare the sale of Fremantle port. We acted on
advice. We were caught up in one of the major diplomatic disputes across the
world between Donald Trump and China. That
is what happened. The Leader of the Liberal Party is not correct. We have been
through this a number of times. We acted on advice from federal and state
government agencies. We were not to know exactly what Donald Trump and China
were going to do. As a result, the government's radio replacement
program for the state transport network was caught up in what has been one of
the major diplomatic disputes between two nations.