Page 249 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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leaves nothing. The ACT got nothing from the Chief Minister going to this meeting yesterday. It is not that we should not have asked for a lot of things. We are told that we should not really be going there with cap in hand, asking for anything from the Federal Government, because really our needs are quite few, our economy is the best in the country and we are very contented. Let me assure the Chief Minister that there are a lot of people out there and in this chamber that are not content with what we got from the Federal Government yesterday.
Madam Speaker, in conclusion - I note that I have 26 seconds left - I finish as I started. The ACT got nothing from nothing, which leaves nothing. What a waste of time, what a sham, what a public relations exercise! We got plugged into the national grid and we were allowed to leave our guns at home. That is shocking. One would hope that next time we get what we are entitled to.
MR WESTENDE (4.19): Madam Speaker, the problem with the Chief Minister's statement is that it is essentially not providing any comfort to the people of Canberra. We are in a talkfest and we had a talkfest yesterday. What we need is action, not talking. Apart from establishing the Council of Australian Governments, at which more people will look at things and at which more people will talk, we still do not get any action. What we need in this fine city of ours is some action.
The Chief Minister's statement gives absolutely no hope to the people of Canberra. How about a message to the Canberra community? What can they expect from yesterday's summit? I have heard absolutely nothing from this meeting that represents any signs of hope for the Canberra community. It does not seem that the One Nation statement has any hope for the future. Are not the real issues more jobs, stimulating industry and reducing public expenditure? After the Chief Minister's statement, the reference that she made to national road transport should probably read something like this: The only road transport that we are going to need is to shift businesses out of this town.
MRS CARNELL (4.21): I also support Mr Kaine's amendment. In the media prior to the Premiers Conference Ms Follett rightly stated that health is a central issue. She claimed - I could quote, but it would take up more time - that health and health funding was an area central to that conference. Unfortunately, when we look at the conference communique, we find nothing about health. Why is this so? I have to assume that Ms Follett took a plea from Mr Berry to the conference, because it would appear that there are no real policies in the ACT to address the very real problems facing ACT health. This is not to trivialise the very nasty health problems that we have in the ACT and everywhere else in Australia. I do not believe that this health issue should be taken trivially.
Ms Follett should have joined with her colleague from Western Australia and the Premiers of New South Wales and Tasmania in an attempt to look at the very real problems of health in Australia and look to private health insurance as a method of alleviating the problems that beset our public health system with a view to improving the level of revenue in our public health system and giving people real choice. They could even look to some of the Fightback health initiatives; initiatives like giving pensioners virtually free private health insurance, giving pensioners real choice and not putting them at the end of a waiting list of over 2,000 people.
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