Page 1185 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 August 1989
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duty to show what it is that self government can bring to the people of the ACT, what it is that we can achieve as a self-governing territory for the people of this Territory and, unfortunately, I believe that those 100 days have been largely days of wasted opportunity.
We have not demonstrated in that time just what benefits we can bring; we have missed opportunities; we have avoided issues; and we have deceived to a large extent the people of the Territory as far as what could and should be done. I say "deceived" advisedly. We have had this Government create again and again in its media work the appearance of progress, the appearance of achievement, the appearance of being able to do something about the Territory's problems, but in fact not really addressing those problems.
The first and foremost of those problems is the problem which we raised again and again during the recent election campaign and which really has not been addressed, and that is the long-term funding problems for this Territory. This Government has really not faced up to that problem in any sense at all. It is extremely sad that that should be the case, and I wonder at what stage the Government is going to do that, if at all.
We have had a propaganda exercise waged for some time, laying claim all the time to the achievements of this Assembly, as has been pointed out by other people. The achievements of this Assembly have been claimed by this Government as its own achievements, and that is very sad. My colleague Dr Kinloch referred to the fact that we have slipped into the old mode of adversarial government - government versus opposition fighting on issues - and it is a matter of sadness to some people in this community, I suspect, that we were not able to achieve what was called at various stages cooperative government, government that shared the responsibilities and the credit for particular decisions.
I think, to a very large extent, it has not happened because in its first 100 days this Government sitting opposite has consistently refused to share any of the credit for any of the things that this whole Assembly has done. It has consistently refused to provide for a real sharing of responsibility and credit across the board, and that is extremely sad.
I give one example, and this will not be shared by my colleagues over here in the Residents Rally. The decision on the casino was an extremely important one that this Government was very committed to.
Mr Whalan: We have consistently and publicly acknowledged the support of the Liberal Party and the No Self Government Party on this.
MR HUMPHRIES: You have consistently failed to do so. I believe that the Government has consistently failed to
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