Page 2230 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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It is a pity that, as Mr Collaery said earlier, the marriage did come to an end. It did, but there is no good in smarting about it and now suddenly turning around and going full steam at 180 degrees - "Let us vote for the other side". I am looking forward to seeing how long they are going to be supporting the other side. I am quite sure that it will not be very long before they change their position - or change their spots, if you like - and end up then wishing that they had perhaps not supported the no-confidence motion this afternoon.
One of the things that I do believe that we in this Government have been able to achieve - it has not been easy in this situation; financially we have been very much hindered - is that we certainly have not left the Territory with the same sort of financial problems that the other States around Australia have. It is still not going to be easy over the next few years, as we see a situation whereby there will be significantly fewer dollars than there were prior to self-government. That had nothing to do with self-government. That was purely a situation whereby the Federal Labor Party decided that it did not want to any longer manage the Territory and it decided to hand it back to the people - but it took lots of money from them at the same time.
I should mention one thing. It relates to the Residents Rally in government and out of government. I had this reminder last night when John Brown was speaking at the TAFE graduation dinner. He was talking about the roller-coaster ride that the priorities of government had taken under previous Federal Ministers. He talked of the time when he was Minister for tourism, when the third runway was a priority and a casino for Canberra was on the bottom rung of the ladder. He went on to say that the next Territories Minister came along and the casino became a top priority and the third runway appeared on the bottom rung. And then the next Federal Minister came along, et cetera, et cetera.
One thing is very sure: The Liberal Party has clearly articulated its policies. It went to the election with clear, decisive policies. And, while obviously not all of them have been implemented because we have had a situation whereby we have been within an alliance, at least people knew what those policies were. It is a little bit more difficult for some of the other political groupings, and I am sure that the people will tell the test when the next election comes around.
MR PROWSE (5.49): The concern of this community is for stable, consistent and responsible government. We have heard that today and it still is the fact. It has been in the past and it will ever be. The budget brought down by the Chief Minister this year has addressed the major problems that we are confronted with. The dwindling Commonwealth funding is being made up from our own resources, and that is an important issue.
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