Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Of course, we are still waiting for her to stand up for her electorate and particularly for the trades training centre that she seeks in Vincentia. Once again, what we are seeing this action from the opposition—except, I would have to give it to the shadow Treasurer that at least, when he is going to base his question on newspaper reports, he gets them out of the newspaper reports that day, which probably implies that the shadow Treasurer reads his newspapers every day. But what the member for Gilmore has done is base this question on a newspaper report from a number of days ago. What the member may want to know—and the problem, of course, with just reading the newspaper and then assuming that without any further research one should rely on it and use it for question time—is that the matters in that report have already been dealt with by the New South Wales department. In particular, I am advised that the New South Wales department has made it absolutely clear that the claims in that report that somehow money—those incentive payments—is being conveyed is not right. Incentive payments are there and they can be paid if projects are brought in in accordance with certain project milestones. The report also has, from my recollection, sources of estimates rather than any other source of information.

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