Page 2145 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
That is a matter that ultimately rests in the hands of members of this Assembly. If they decide that this Government should go, it is up to the Assembly to make that decision, and nobody in this part of the Assembly chamber will be surprised at that. But I have to say that, if the stage is reached at some point down the track - some time in the next eight months - where the Assembly decides that it no longer wishes this Government to remain in office, it will be, it seems to me, incumbent on whoever brings that position forward to this Assembly to explain clearly and concisely what the alternatives are.
I have to say, as I have said many times in the past and as I will keep saying until I am blue in the face, that there are no alternatives. There are no alternatives to the forces that are at work on the ACT at the present point in time. I have read the report of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, and I have been very saddened by it because I know what it means for the ACT.
In the last 18 months I have not enjoyed going to school meetings and being heavily abused at them. I have not enjoyed facing demonstrations and being shouted down at them. I have not enjoyed having to write back to people and say that I cannot take on board their concerns about schools or the hospitals or whatever else. It has not been a pleasure, I can assure you.
However, I do not know what else I can do and remain a responsible Minister of this Territory. I do not see what the alternatives are. Any government with a majority in this chamber would have had to respond to the forces to which this Government has responded. Anything less would have been irresponsible and detracting from the responsibilities that pertain to us when we take up office.
I think we have to ask two questions of those who would call for other governments in the Territory, or those who purport to be the next government of the Territory - and I am looking opposite particularly at this time. We have to ask: What are the alternatives that they propose? How will they deal with the problems that the Territory is currently facing? I do not know the answer, and I expect an answer before those people face the community at the next ACT election, whenever that might be.
It is not enough to say that you oppose school closures; it is not enough to say that we should keep a decrepit and decaying Royal Canberra Hospital North; it is not enough to say that all these community services should remain untouched. You have to spell out how you are going to pay for them, particularly in the environment in which the ACT's funding base has been cut dramatically by a Commonwealth government that is determined to do just that. A clear spelling out of the alternatives is nothing less than the ACT community deserves.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .