Mr WETTENHALL (Thursday 5 August) (3.57 pm): It is a pleasure to speak to the report of Estimates Committee F.

I take this opportunity to thank the chair of the committee, Ms Mary-Anne O'Neill, and the secretariat staff—Mrs Helen Bogiatzis and Mrs Marilyn Freeman—for their assistance and for guiding the committee to discharge its functions effectively and in accordance with the established procedures and rules. I would also like to thank Hansard and all the parliamentary staff who contribute so much to the functioning of the estimates process.

The committee is established to examine the proposed expenditures contained in the Appropriation Bill 2010 for the ministerial portfolios of Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Child Safety, Sport, Community Services and Housing, and Women.

The proposed expenditures, whilst not in the same league as the big departments of Health and Education, nevertheless are significant with over $891 million in Child Safety and Sport, over $77 million in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and over $2 billion in Community Services and Housing and Women.

The estimates committee process affords an opportunity for members of parliament to scrutinise both the past and projected performance of the executive branch of government. In that respect, it is no less important for government members than it is for members of the opposition or Independent MPs, although the direction of their inquiries will be different. Liberal National Party opposition members squirm when reminded of it, but it is worth remembering that it took a Labor government to introduce the estimates process after decades of domination and subjugation of the parliament by the Bjelke-Petersen executive dictatorship.

Nowadays opposition members complain about the estimates process, but their complaints are the same every year. The proforma critique appears in their statements of reservation. Their complaints do not stand up to scrutiny. Ample time is provided in public hearings for members to ask questions without notice of ministers over two weeks of hearings. Prior to the hearings members can submit questions on notice which, if adequately researched and properly framed, have the potential to provide useful leads for further inquiry and examination at the hearing.

Yet year after year members of the opposition squander the opportunity that estimates provides. When not feeble or frivolous, their lines of questioning betray an appalling ignorance of the way in which modern government is run and public sector accounts are produced and presented. Put simply, criticism of the process has become, for members of the opposition, the substitute for hard work. As the old saying goes, a bad workman blames his tools.

Within the portfolios examined, I am pleased to say that some very worthwhile projects in my electorate of Barron River were highlighted during the estimates hearing. We have heard the member for Burdekin and shadow minister for community housing take a particular interest in social housing projects at Palm Cove and Trinity Park in my electorate. Just like the LNP does not support federal money for new halls and libraries in schools, it does not support federal money to build new houses for seniors, people with a disability or workers on low incomes, especially if those houses are in suburbs where the LNP believes only the wealthy are entitled to live.

The member for Burdekin questioned the costs of these projects, and she has mentioned it again in debate today. However, both meet the federal government criteria of value for money. Trinity Park, for example, was reduced from $325,000 per unit to $295,000 and the land was acquired for $165,000 less than originally offered. That project is going to create the equivalent of 36 jobs. Palm Cove was reduced from $337,000 to $314,000 per unit and the land was purchased at $150,000 less than originally offered. The Palm Cove projects cost more because the units will be fully adaptable for people with disabilities and the Palm Cove project will create an equivalent of 34 jobs.

Just up the road from where we are building new social housing in Trinity Park, we have allocated $1.64 million to continue construction of a brand-new purpose-built Marlin Coast Neighbourhood Centre at a total cost of $2.1 million, and that centre will be a hub for the very services that the member for Burdekin says will not be available to social housing tenants in that area. What a pity she did not take the time or the trouble to really find out what it is like to live in that location.

So poor was her research that she produced an aerial photograph of Trinity Park that purported to highlight the location of the social housing project. It showed a vacant block nowhere near the site.

In conclusion, I thank each minister and their staff for all of the work they put in to answer members' questions.