Page 5807 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry interjects, "We did not have access to your decisions". The fact of life is that your desire as a government to second guess this decision for ideological reasons, because the gnomes of your party said, "Let us not go ahead with this decision; it is a nasty step towards privatisation", has cost the Territory a lot of money.
If this provision is going to save the Territory, in the long run, the money that we presently subsidise that centre with, then a delay of even six months, Mr Deputy Speaker, does provide for a further loss to the Territory for at least those six months. If it takes us six months longer now to reach the stage where that centre is fully supporting itself in its own right, that is a half-year's worth of subsidy which we have thrown away. As I said, that is quite disgraceful, and the Government has not satisfactorily explained why it did not go down that path immediately on taking office, with the legislation sitting there ready to pass when it took office.
Mr Berry: Do you think we could? Would it ever be possible?
MR HUMPHRIES: For this Government, no, it would not be possible, I do not think, Mr Berry. I think we will find at the end of the day that this Government will start to realise that a lot more of the decisions made by the Alliance Government were pretty sound decisions.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I can see that I am getting these people across the way very excited. They certainly have this tremendous feeling that they might be caught in a cleft stick here; that they are once again preaching to their faithful that they are opposed to the moves towards corporatisation and privatisation of the ACT's public services.
Their policy, as I recall, says that they are going to keep the services of the Territory in the hands of the taxpayers of the Territory, et cetera; but when they get down to it they realise that there are some good, strong, practical reasons why corporatisation is a very good idea, and, as Mr Kaine said, if they are a good idea with respect to Totalcare Industries they are a good idea with respect to other government enterprises such as forestry operations and ACT Electricity and Water.
As I indicated before, the Government has negotiated with unions and it seems to have reached a similar position to that which the Alliance Government reached. It has only taken us six months and presumably a few million dollars in the meantime, but that is as may be.
I note with concern in the Minister's presentation speech that there was close consultation with the Trades and Labour Council and the relevant unions, and in addition to that there have been other employment arrangements for which it has not been necessary to legislate. I assume
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