Page 4601 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 27 November 1990
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I do not believe, as I said at the beginning, that Mr Moore has even made the point that he set out to make, namely, that there has been inappropriate administration of the leasehold system. He is more concerned to criticise the leasehold system, which he can legitimately do; but, if he would put it in the terms of a criticism and a critique of the leasehold system rather than attempting to dress it up as an allegation that the Government has not appropriately managed it, then I think he would get a much more responsive approach from this side of the house and we would accept that there are some things that need to be changed. We are attempting to change them. That is why we have a package of legislation out there, one aspect of which is specifically to address the leasehold system and the management of it. I think that to assert that this Government has not appropriately administered it is totally wrong. He certainly has not sustained his argument. I think, on the contrary, that we have gone a long way to building an appropriate leasehold system, one which will meet, and better meet, the needs of this community, and that we have in fact done a great deal to appropriately administer the system.
MR CONNOLLY (4.17): I rise for the Opposition to generally support the matter of public importance raised by Mr Moore. At the outset of my remarks I want to make one point very clear, and that is that, as we understand Mr Moore's MPI and as I heard Mr Moore's remarks, he is not making any grubby innuendo or allegations about corruption or fiddling in the leasehold system. That is not the tenor of the remarks Mr Moore has made today; nor, I should say, the tenor of Mr Moore's remarks on any occasion that I have heard him speak on this matter in this place. That was very much the tenor of criticisms repeatedly made, I see from Hansard, by the present Deputy Chief Minister when he was in Opposition - this regular grubby little attack, allegation upon allegation of corruption, but nothing proved.
The Chief Minister spent quite some time in his remarks defending the Government's position by saying that Mr Moore failed to substantiate any corruption or ill doing. Well, he did not even attempt to substantiate that because that is not the tenor of this matter of public importance. The tenor of this matter of public importance is the failure of the Government to properly administer the leasehold system, marked most clearly by its inaction in developing the package of legislation of which the new leasehold Bill will be a central plank.
I have referred previously to the remarks almost a year ago, just a week off a year ago, when, in its grab for power and front bench positions, this ramshackle Alliance came to power. The motion of no confidence in the Follett Government on that occasion was moved by Mr Collaery. In his remarks one would expect, in a motion of no confidence, that the mover, particularly knowing that the numbers were cobbled together beforehand, would attempt to start off by
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