Page 2157 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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MR CONNOLLY (12.10): This morning has seen an historic event in this Assembly, an event that we welcome - the collapse of this ramshackle Alliance Government, the collapse of this coalition of ambition and arrogance and intolerance for community discussion. The result of that is that the five school sites are safe, and we welcome that. We have been fighting that - certainly since I came into this place, but before that - for the full two years of self-government, not just the 18 months that this lot have been in office.
When my colleagues in the Labor Party were in government under Rosemary Follett they were fighting equally hard; fighting bureaucratic advice that maybe suggests the same as the bureaucratic advice given to this Government; fighting this nonsense that Mr Humphries comes up with, that it is inevitable that you must shut schools and shut hospitals. When Labor was in government they said, "It is not inevitable". They said, "We will set the agenda and we will preserve services". They fought that fight and, under Ms Follett's leadership, they won that fight. Nothing closed when Labor was in government. As soon as this lot assumed power, they started the wind-down.
We hear this morning this mealy-mouthed nonsense from Residents Rally members suggesting that they are responsible for saving the school sites. Mr Speaker, that could have been the case. Today could have been the day when the Residents Rally took back some pride and could have gone out to the community in Canberra and said, "We are honourable people. We are the watchdogs of community interests, not the lap-dogs of the Liberals". I say that because item one on the notice paper this morning is my motion which reads:
That this Assembly directs the Executive to withdraw the proposed variations to the Territory Plan relating to Cook, North Curtin, Holder, Hackett and Lyons Primary Schools ...
That motion was precisely on all fours with the terms of the motion passed by the Residents Rally annual general meeting a week ago, which I will read into Hansard. It says:
That the Rally MLAs and Executive take whatever action is available -
I repeat "whatever action is available" -
to withdraw current draft policy plans which seek to vary the land use of school sites at Lyons, Cook, Holder, Hackett and North Curtin.
This morning was their opportunity to be honourable men, to stand up for their policies and abandon the Liberals. And what did they do? Well, we heard from David Read on the radio at 10.10 am. They were going to vote with the Libs. They were going to vote with the Liberals, Mr Duby and Ms
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