Page 2144 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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The reality of the situation is that there were certain principles in the formation of the Residents Rally, the most basic of which, and the first one to be written down, was open and accountable government. When the Residents Rally members went into a coalition - Mr Collaery said that it was not a coalition, that it was an alliance, and nobody was ever able to work out the difference - they made their decisions behind closed doors in the joint party room. Now Mr Jensen seeks to say, "But we did something; we voted in the joint party room". It was behind closed doors; it does not count.
What does count is for the people to read back over the Minutes of Proceedings of this Assembly when members of the Residents Rally voted again and again to take away the rights and the valued possessions, amenities and privileges of the people of Canberra. They include the schools, the hospital and the Ainslie Transfer Station. On and on it goes.
Mr Duby: That was my idea.
MR MOORE: It happened time after time. I know that it was Mr Duby's idea; I know that he is proud of the Ainslie Transfer Station decision. But, without the support of Mr Collaery, Dr Kinloch and Mr Jensen, he simply could not have done it. It required their tacit support, and it required the breaking of the principles upon which the Residents Rally was founded and upon which its members were elected. They have failed again and again to understand that there is a major difference between policies and principles; they have never been able to work that out. Because of that, the people of Canberra scoff at them and will continue to scoff at them, particularly over the fact that they did not even have the guts to resign; they had to be fired.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (11.33): Mr Speaker, this is an interesting and eventful day in the history of ACT self-government - one which I think will prove to be a very major pivot in the history of self-government, but one which I do not think will necessarily be seen in the same way as some opposite have described it today.
First of all, I want to make it clear that this Government will attempt to continue to govern for as long as it has the support - at least the tacit support, or support by omission - of this Assembly. Mr Kaine has indicated very clearly that he finds no joy, any more than any of the rest of us have found any joy, in making difficult decisions for the people of the ACT, and I do not think there will be any joy in the coming months either. But he, I am sure, understands that the ACT needs to be provided with, if at all possible, stable government over the coming months. It will therefore be our duty and our responsibility to provide that government, if that is physically possible.
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