Page 1878 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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of Northbourne Flats took such strong action to oppose the underhanded sale of these flats that we still have them. I hope this has taught Mr Collaery a lesson, that the Government is not to have more secret negotiations. The amount of stuff that falls off the back of trucks and we get hold of is amazing.
Mr Speaker, Mr Collaery has covered a number of other areas, particularly the frightening attacks on health and education being carried out by Mr Humphries. I wish to add nothing to that debate because I think that my colleague Mr Berry did extremely well and got under the skin of many people in the Government with his speech. I think if he had been let go too much longer they would probably have had to leave the chamber. I also think my colleague Mr Wood did extremely well in the debate on education, so I will leave that to them.
This Government will obviously attack the public sector, for no better reason than that it will benefit their mates in private enterprise. I stand here and say now that this does not surprise me, coming from the Liberal Party. I am not surprised that it would attack the public service. That is normal. The public service is always attacked under a Liberal government, whether it be Federal, State or Territory, because it does not believe in it. The one thing that it does not understand is that the public service in this city is an industry. The public servants also buy in this city, spend their wages and pay taxes. They are part of this city. It is an industry, and therefore should not be attacked at every chance and cut, as it is.
What does surprise me is that the colleagues of the Liberal Alliance Government have been so quick to sell out their principles for the chance of just being in office and taking a ministerial salary. I am sure that the people of the ACT will visit retribution upon their heads at the next election, and I doubt whether we will see very many of them back in this house. From what I understand, from the way the people of Canberra feel - and I have been spending a lot of time going to school meetings and union meetings - I can tell you now a different story from what we would be led to believe by the Government. I am sure that at the next election the people will tell them exactly how they feel, Mr Speaker.
MR WOOD (4.45): Mr Speaker, the passage of the Supply Bill is the mechanism by which funds are made available for government purposes. It is an encouragement for us to look ahead to income and expenditure of government to see where it comes from, where it goes to. This debate and earlier debates today have revealed some interesting comments about the Government's thinking. It has shown us some of its priorities and how it operates. It has become clear today - even clearer than it was before - that the Government is better informed on how it is going to sell the schools than it is about managing the closures.
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