Page 2189 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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purely Liberal philosophy, but it is the leadership of the Alliance that is the key to the disastrous performance of this Government. There is no question about that. It is an unhappy Alliance because it has been led badly.
The Chief Minister has led a government which has fostered division, mistrust, constant conflict and an unprecedented period of instability at a time when Canberra needed and deserved much better. It is not good for government; it is not good for public confidence; it is not good for Canberra. Mr Speaker, the other Alliance partners, unfortunately, because of the Chief Minister's leadership and because of the arrangements in the Government, have been judged by the community to have sold out. It is an unfortunate turn of events for the people of the Australian Capital Territory. The interests of the community are said to have been ignored because it has been no less than a Liberal agenda. There is no question about that.
Let us go back to the promises on health and education. On 7 December 1989 the Chief Minister, Mr Kaine, said:
This Government will address the community's real concerns.
Do not laugh. He continued:
Education will be maintained at the present level of excellence. The Government will build on the good foundations of our education system to create an environment where high standards and excellence are the primary objectives.
Well, you have a long way to go before you achieve your objectives. You still have a bit of work to do. He then proceeded down a path which attacked our school system's very foundations. He ignored all the evidence put forward by the community - evidence which pointed out the flaws in his financial arguments and demonstrated that his plans would lower the quality. He led an attack on the community which ended up in people being arrested for trying to defend their schools, and he called that, just a little while ago, a cruel and cynical hoax. That is what he thinks about the people of the Australian Capital Territory defending their community assets. That is what this Chief Minister thinks.
Mr Kaine: Tell us which schools you are going to reopen.
MR BERRY: They are squirming loudly, Mr Speaker. I wish you would quieten them down. The Chief Minister who promised to address the community's real concerns is deaf, Mr Speaker, to the pleas of the people of Canberra.
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