Page 4073 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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this contradicts utterly what this young Attorney just said to the house -
and 1992-93 and the levels of any special revenue assistance.
Mr Connolly has again tonight seriously misinformed this house. He said that it gave a guarantee for one year only, and he made light, by inference, as any good lawyer can - we are all used to addressing juries - of an important provision in the Act. I see much in Mr Connolly that perhaps I was 10 years ago. He needs to take a lot more care with his utterances. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker - - -
Mrs Grassby: No, I am not in the chair any more, Bernard.
MR COLLAERY: I am sorry. He is better looking than you, Mrs Grassby. I am sorry; you are better looking than he is. It is only my fever; I will put that down to my fever.
Again, putting that third rupture that I have enumerated to the test, in May, shortly before the Government fell, it had to hand the report of the first review. Paragraph 10.1 of that important report said:
This current review for 31 December 1990 has been limited in its scope, the intention being to conduct a more intensive review of Schedules A, B and C prior to 30 June 1991.
It will be overseen by a steering committee, including Treasury officials and competent public servants. Paragraph 10.2 of the 1990 report states:
The June 1991 review will have the advantages of:
. a more informed data base on which the ACT Government can make decisions in the ACT budgetary, policy and legislative contexts;
Clearly, this Attorney and his Government pre-empted the June 1991 report which was required. I do not cavil with the former Chief Minister's comment that the police would have to take a cut at some stage. That is what he meant. We all knew that they would have come down off a high, but we specifically and contractually negotiated a staged step-down because the police were entering the self-government phase 18 months to two years after all the other echelons of government had done so. This was deliberately negotiated to ensure that the very event the Follett Government has pushed on the police did not arrive in this year. There has been a breach of the agreement at every step of the way. (Extension of time granted)
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