Page 3015 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 August 1990
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MR COLLAERY: Thank you, Mrs Grassby. Certainly, Mr Moore graciously acknowledged the presence of Gary Humphries' car in the basement at all hours - not that he sleeps here. Certainly, there seems to be no real dispute, factually across the house, as to the pressures on the Government. It is simply whether you want to be decent enough to give the Chief Minister the scope to do some more innovation with respect to his ministry - his ministry, I said; not mine, Craig Duby's or Gary Humphries', but Mr Kaine's ministry. Let me make that very clear for the record. There were also the pious utterances of the Leader of the Opposition about the fact that her Government handled matters satisfactorily. I think she would be in government now if she had. When we took over the attorneyship, for instance, no Minister had gone to the State Attorneys meeting and developed issues of law reform and the like. There was no evidence that a Minister of the Labor Government had gone. Competent officials were sent, but there was no evidence that a Minister had gone.
There was so much pious nonsense in the speech of the Leader of the Opposition. It really typifies her response for her to draw upon Mrs Kelly today and to say that Mrs Kelly's reaction was appropriate. You all know - and I am sure that Mr Connolly, as a lawyer, knows - that Mrs Kelly's reaction was quite wrong. Before she even heard the case advanced by this house, she prejudged it. She said what she thought of us without even hearing our argument. I think it is a shame on Mrs Kelly. As my colleagues Mr Humphries and Mr Duby made clear, the Chief Minister supported this move at question time in response to a question from the other side of the house.
That is just empty rhetoric. I think we have got clear why you have behaved in this way today. That is because you wanted to speak to an audience. You wanted it to believe it. The people of Canberra know the issues facing government - people in the welfare sector, the homeless youth area, housing, community facilities, health and education, particularly the manner in which we have tackled the problems of the aged. We have issued an options paper for housing for the aged.
We have done many more things per day in our period of office than your Government tackled in a week, and that is quite clear. The people of Canberra are very happy to see a stable, solid alliance serving the Territory. As we move into the next 18 months of our term we will ensure that our Government is marked - - -
Mrs Grassby: If you are going to join the book of the month club, do it a week at a time.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby! I warn you.
MR COLLAERY: Our Government is marked by informed attention to issues, by a willingness to confront the issues. No-one denied that Gary Humphries has gone out and
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