The Leader of the Opposition asks the Treasurer to guarantee a refund within 30 days for overcharged fees. The Treasurer commits to examining individual circumstances and taking corrective action, while highlighting the impracticality of re-examining all transactions.

AnsweredQoN 580Legislative Assembly
Asked
22 September 2004
Portfolio
Treasurer

QuestionView source ↗

My supplementary question to the Treasurer is: will the Treasurer guarantee the people of this State that the $20 million or $30 million collected from overcharging will be refunded to them within 30 days? Mr E.S. RIPPER

AnswerView source ↗

We will examine all the individual circumstances and we will take corrective action. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that there are about 2 500 fees across government. There is no doubt that inevitably those 2 500 fees would have involved some tens of thousands of transactions. For the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that it would be an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money to re-examine tens of thousands of individual transactions shows that he has a funny idea of what is a responsible use of money. We will examine all the individual circumstances. Mr C.J. Barnett: It is shameful. It is an unlawful collection. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Why does the Leader of the Opposition not listen for once instead of repeating inane interjections? I am responding to his interjections, and he should have the courtesy to listen to me. Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: We will examine all the individual circumstances and we will take corrective action. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that there are about 2 500 fees across government. There is no doubt that inevitably those 2 500 fees would have involved some tens of thousands of transactions. For the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that it would be an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money to re-examine tens of thousands of individual transactions shows that he has a funny idea of what is a responsible use of money. We will examine all the individual circumstances. Mr C.J. Barnett: It is shameful. It is an unlawful collection. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Why does the Leader of the Opposition not listen for once instead of repeating inane interjections? I am responding to his interjections, and he should have the courtesy to listen to me. Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
We will examine all the individual circumstances and we will take corrective action. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that there are about 2 500 fees across government. There is no doubt that inevitably those 2 500 fees would have involved some tens of thousands of transactions. For the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that it would be an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money to re-examine tens of thousands of individual transactions shows that he has a funny idea of what is a responsible use of money. We will examine all the individual circumstances. Mr C.J. Barnett: It is shameful. It is an unlawful collection. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Why does the Leader of the Opposition not listen for once instead of repeating inane interjections? I am responding to his interjections, and he should have the courtesy to listen to me. Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
Mr C.J. Barnett: It is shameful. It is an unlawful collection. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Why does the Leader of the Opposition not listen for once instead of repeating inane interjections? I am responding to his interjections, and he should have the courtesy to listen to me. Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: Why does the Leader of the Opposition not listen for once instead of repeating inane interjections? I am responding to his interjections, and he should have the courtesy to listen to me. Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
Mr C.J. Barnett: You are not answering them well. Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: Regardless of the Leader of the Opposition’s opinion on how well I am answering them, he should have the courtesy to listen to me. We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.
We will examine all the individual circumstances identified by the Auditor General and take the appropriate corrective action because we believe that the Auditor General is right. The public is entitled to pay no more than cost recovery to government agencies that sell services.

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