The Hon. LUKE FOLEY: My question is directed to the Minister for Finance and Services. Given that at the last election the Coalition promised the people of New South Wales more public servants, not less, why has the Coalition cut more than 15,000 public service jobs in its first two budgets?

The Hon. GREG PEARCE: What a great budget. The Treasurer has excelled himself with a great budget. Building New South Wales and building for the future is what this budget is all about. This Government fulfils its promises, and that is why we are delivering more teachers, more nurses and more police officers—hundreds of extra teachers, hundreds of extra police officers and thousands of extra nurses. But what does the mob opposite do? Not content with driving this State into the ground for 16 years, not content with trying to destroy the economy of New South Wales, not content with the removal of services from all over New South Wales and not content with their failure to build necessary infrastructure all around New South Wales, the members opposite continue to misrepresent, they continue their spin and they continue playing to their ever-diminishing audience of union mates. I saw something interesting the other day: Labor ran an election to select its candidate for the City of Sydney local council election and it admitted that in an electorate of 90,000 people only 400 people voted.

The Hon. Melinda Pavey: We had more than that in Tamworth.

The Hon. Luke Foley: Point of order: My point of order relates to relevance. To a question regarding public service job numbers an answer concerning City of Sydney preselection cannot possibly be relevant.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I uphold the point of order.

The Hon. GREG PEARCE: The relevance is that that mob cannot count; they just make up numbers to suit their purpose. The Opposition talks about 15,000 job losses. There are not 15,000 job losses—these people make up the numbers; they make up whatever suits them. I agree with the Hon. Melinda Pavey: at the Tamworth selection process run by The Nationals more than 4,000 people voted.

The Hon. Luke Foley: Point of order: I refer to your earlier ruling. Discussion of any party's preselection process cannot be relevant to a very specific question about public service job cuts in the budget.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I refer the Minister to my earlier ruling. Has the Minister concluded his answer?

The Hon. GREG PEARCE: They are embarrassed about their lies about the budget, they are embarrassed about their lies about public sector employment, and how embarrassed would any party be to have a preselection process as disastrous as the one Labor held in Sydney?