Page 1070 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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One of the prime aims of consultation and proper participation of the community in the decision making process is that people walk away satisfied that they have been given a fair go, and that they have actually played a role or played a part in the development of policies. Then they are happy with the policies that have been finally developed by the Government. The Government has to realise that those are the needs that the community expects. If it is not going to play the game fairly, openly and properly, it should not play the game at all. It should give it up as a bad job. It has certainly not convinced the community that its consultation processes are fair and above board. Take the schools community as one good example. Certainly, you would be hard pressed to find anybody in the schools community that would trust this Government and, in particular, would trust Minister Humphries.
Mr Humphries: There are plenty of them, Wayne.
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries claims that there are plenty of them. I have not seen a line-up anywhere, and I certainly have not seen too many letters congratulating the Government on its brilliant performance in education, because, clearly, that is not true. It has not happened. It has been a disastrous performance. What it has done is left a whole range of people who are deeply ashamed of the process of self-government. They are ashamed because of what they perceive as dishonesty in a government which has tried to con the community through processes of consultation which have been shown to be shoddy, just like some of the government members' positions in relation to those areas which are being discussed with the community.
Referring still to the consultation processes that have been adopted by the Government, Mr Jensen, of course, has repeatedly said to the Lyons community that he is on their side, but the Lyons school community are going to lose their school. What is it worth to have Mr Jensen on your side? I think it is like dragging a large boat anchor in a 100-metre swim. You are bound to be pulled up and lose.
Mr Jensen: Relevance, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Jensen.
MR BERRY: Mr Jensen would be very nervous about the issue of relevance, because consultation and the Government's approach to consultation in this very important area are most relevant in this debate. In fact, they are the root cause of the difficulties in the community, and that is why they have to be raised in the course of discussion.
What we have to ensure, Mr Speaker, is that we come to a situation where the members opposite stop grandstanding and squabbling for just long enough to get the focus back onto the needs of the community, the community that one hopes that they have in some way committed themselves to serve, although that is somewhat difficult to determine, given the
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