Page 3936 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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It was only a bit over a month ago that I said that. And what is happening already and what has happened in that month demonstrate it to be true. We do not have to go very far outside this building to find the parent of a schoolchild in the private school system who believes that this budget has failed. We do not have to go far outside this building to find a police officer who believes that this budget has failed. I know that Mr Connolly is trying to get himself off the hook now, but when the police wanted to actually negotiate with him about - - -
Mr Connolly: I said that I would, and then they said that they wanted to deal with management.
MR KAINE: No, you did not. I think you ought to go and review history and not try to rewrite it. When the Police Association first objected to your budget, you virtually said, "Buzz off, we are not interested. We have made our decision; that's it". After you got a bit of pressure and you started to feel the blowtorch on your belly, then you said, "We will talk". Then, when they said to Mr Connolly, "If you do not insist that all of this money comes out of the operational overheads budget and if you will allow us to talk about staff cuts, we can come to some agreement", Mr Connolly, quick to jump in without very much rational thought, said, "Give us your 12 people, and I want them tonight". That is Mr Connolly's negotiation.
Only when the blowtorch was applied to Mr Connolly's belly for the second time did it finally dawn on him that this consultation that he talks about all the time is something that he had better get active and do something about. Only in the last few days has there been anything remotely like something that you would call consultation with the Federal Police Association.
Mr Connolly: I have not spoken to them at all this week.
MR KAINE: Well, you had better start talking, because they are not too pleased with you, Mr Connolly. You can talk about consultation and you can talk about the effectiveness of your budget; but yesterday I did read Ms Follett's words from the budget speech that, if the community does not believe that it is working, then it ain't working. That is the case with the police budget.
One does not have to go far out of this building to find a health delivery worker who thinks that this budget is not working. One does not have to go much further than Calvary Hospital. One need not go any further than Royal Canberra Hospital, which is just down the road, where the nursing staff are now beginning to wonder where their job is going to be next week and whether there is going to be one. And one does not have to go far outside this building to find a person in the business community who is asking, "What about us? What did this budget do for us, except, once again, kick us in the teeth?".
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