Page 2130 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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hypocrite. He and his Rally colleagues have been accused of hypocrisy over the school closure debate, of hypocrisy over the commercial lease renewal matter and, of course, of hypocrisy, gross hypocrisy, over the closure of Royal Canberra Hospital.
Who does not remember, who could have forgotten, the stance of the Residents Rally during the election period on issues like that? Who could have forgotten their attempting to take the high moral ground, their attempting to persuade the Canberra community that they would protect us from that sort of thing? That was the very basis of their standing for election, particularly on the land and planning matters. The hypocrisy, I am afraid, has been glaring on the part of Rally members.
Mr Speaker, as far as the Labor Party goes, as I say, I am delighted to see the end of this Alliance. It has been a shameful era in ACT self-government. It has been an era directly attributable to the actions of the Residents Rally. I know that they are going to try to say now that they did this to save us all. Rubbish! They could have saved those schools from closing a year ago. They could have saved Royal Canberra Hospital from closing if they had only stuck to their policy. They did not. They chose instead to go into government; to take the perks of office; to deny the Canberra community any sort of access to this decision making and to go along, at every point, with the agenda of the Liberal Party.
The Residents Rally stand condemned for having brought ACT self-government to this parlous state of affairs. They have now been sacked by Mr Kaine. I applaud his sacking of them. I wish he had done it a year and a half ago. They did not deserve that much of a run in government. They were not worthy of it. They made no attempt to protect the Canberra community at any point in their period in government. They have been sacked now, and I am glad.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (10.49): Mr Speaker, I had not intended to debate this motion and I think that - - -
Mr Moore: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I believe that the Chief Minister moved the motion and his speaking now would close the debate. I am happy to grant him leave to speak now without closing the debate.
MR KAINE: If there is any doubt, Mr Speaker, I seek leave to speak to my motion.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I had not intended to speak to it and I think, from the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition in opening her speech, that obviously she misunderstood. This is a procedural motion and following it there will be an adjournment motion which I expect everybody to debate. I did not expect the debate to take
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