Page 2146 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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If those opposite want to take government, even in the next day, they can do so - it is within their power to do so - but they had better explain to the community and to this Assembly how they propose to do so and how they will face the problems that the Territory is currently addressing. I have not seen any indication, particularly on the part of the Labor Party, of what they will do to face these same problems. Where are their alternatives? Where is their plan? We have not seen a breath of it in this place. They are hypocrites to come into this place and pretend that they can solve the problems that we have been tackling for some time.
Mr Speaker, I think we could say many things about the Residents Rally over the last 18 months. I have experienced particularly sharply what I would consider to be actions by members of the Residents Rally that I have regretted. On occasions I certainly have found it very difficult to work with the Residents Rally. I think I should be more entitled than anybody else in this chamber to get up and make very clear how low I feel some actions have been by members of the Residents Rally. Interference in other members' portfolios, for example, has been, I think, quite unacceptable on occasions under the Alliance Government. However, I am not going to do that.
I want to say very simply in finishing, Mr Speaker, that I think what will harm the Residents Rally ultimately will be their perceived lack of consistency. I believe that the Liberal Party's strong stand, its strong maintenance of a position which it has consistently taken and explained to the people of Canberra, which has not wavered - - -
Mr Duby: And the Independents.
MR HUMPHRIES: And the Independents, in fairness. That clear position will stand us in good stead. I believe that at the next election the Liberal Party will increase the number of seats that it currently holds in this Assembly, and I am quite certain, as night follows day, that the Residents Rally will lose seats that it currently holds.
MR STEVENSON (11.40): Rosemary Follett said that the shameful act in this time was the formation of the Alliance Government. That is not correct. The shameful act was - - -
Mr Berry: Here we go. It was on a video.
MR STEVENSON: Indeed, here we go. What we will do, Mr Berry, is go again and again and again and again on the most shameful act, and that was the formation of self-government against the will of the people. Let us look at who did that. The Federal Labor Government and the Federal Liberal politicians - Labor and Liberal politicians - made the decision to ignore the 1978 referendum when 70 per cent of people in Canberra indicated that they did not want this thing called self-government.
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