A bit before midday today I pushed open a door at the Legislative Assembly and found myself in a roomful of people examining what Chef Minister and Treasurer Jon Stanhope called “a genuine attempt at reformâ€. It was the ACT Budget lockup.
When I rang the Chief Minister’s (and now Treasurer’s) office last week to ask if I could get into the lockup, I had no idea what to expect. For all I knew there could have been myself and a Canberra Times and ABC journalist. Instead there were about 60 people there, many with laptops and all chatting away and generally looking like they knew what was going on.
[NB The useful links are at the very end. If you don’t want to read of my experiences just hit “more” and scroll down quickly]
The notice I had said the lockup opened at 10.30 with a press conference at 12.30. Unfortunately I had prior engagements and thus, it transpired, missed Jon Stanhope’s overview speech as well as Andrew Barr and Katy Gallagher explain what was going on in education and health respectively.
I had a box, an inch of press releases, a CD and a booklet about the education system reforms thrust into my hands and was told to find a bit of desk anywhere I liked. There didn’t appear to be any bits of desk available, but a girl from the Canberra Times (I think) said she was moving anyway and I could sit here. So I did. I suspect I looked rather lost because a man came over and introduced himself to me as Jeremy (or something like that) from the Chief Minister’s office. He then proceeded to point out the press releases he thought would be most useful (1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 17 and 68 for anyone interested) and said to just ask if I had any questions.
The advice I had before going in was to read the speech and overview and forget the budget itself because it would be largely incomprehensible (true). In the absence of anything that looked like a speech or overview, I started working my way through the 75 press releases. I also went and found some lunch (brie and fig rolls and smoked salmon rolls – I was impressed).
About 1.15 Jon Stanhope and his cabinet finally showed up for a question and answer session during which I discovered a whole lot of figures that I seemed to be missing; things like 500 public housing properties being sold and 400 teachers losing jobs (don’t worry, Andrew Barr promised no involuntary redundancies). This mystified me further as to the whereabouts of my budget overview and Treasurer’s speech.
After this was over everything seemed to relax a bit as journalists chased ministers around the room to dig a bit further into the piles of numbers they had been given. Simon Corbell did pass by my desk but by this stage I wasn’t feeling quite confident enough to ask him about the RiotACT email interview. I did go and ask Penelope Layland, Mr Stanhopes media person, if I could have a copy of his speech and she looked at me oddly and said I should have it already but she would email a copy if I wanted (she hasn’t yet). While I was waiting to talk to her, I overheard her counting the pages of the budget for Craig Allen (the ABC’s weekend newsreader). Turns out there’s 666 pages, which may or may not be significant on this beastly day 6/6/06 (and that explains why JB’s gone nuts about triple-sixes tonight).
A little later the Canberra Times photographer sat down at the other end of my table to start converting his pictures. He kindly pointed out Markus Mannheim to me, and I went and introduced myself. Mr Mannheim said he didn’t recognise me with my clothes on, and went on to say RiotACT was his favourite website. He was somewhat surprised I’d managed to get myself into the lockup given RA’s treatment of our new Treasurer (to which I pointed out we treat everyone the same). He also solved the mystery of the missing speech by opening up the heavy box I’d decided must just contain the budget itself. Et voilà , Mr Stanhope’s speech, the budget at a glance, the budget overview, the budget, and a paper on the ACT’s economic future. I felt a bit silly.
(Please note we are both fully clothed…)
Soon afterwards everyone started drifting out even though it was only just after 2pm and we had been told we would stay locked until 3pm. And thus ends Kerces’s budget day.
Budget papers
Ministerial releases
ABC Budget coverage
The Canberra Times (where I imagine there will be budget coverage after about 9am on Wednesday 7-JUN-06)
Canberra Liberals’ site where the first half dozen or so press releases are budget reaction
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