Page 1551 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 12 August 1992
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MR CORNWELL (11.37): I find it amazing that we are talking now about an integrated pattern; whereas earlier Mr Moore talked about not forcing people into such a pattern. It seems to me that this Government is determined to create some sort of socialist paradise in this Territory, at least over the next three years; and, if that requires people to fit into the round holes that they have created, they are going to force them into them. It reminds me of a cartoon of many, many years ago when Kep Enderby was the member here, and he wanted to create a social laboratory of the ACT. This is virtually what Mr Lamont is about again today. We have resurrected this social laboratory. We are going to oblige people to fulfil all sorts of requirements - not that they want to fulfil them, but they are what this Government believes they should fulfil. We had an example of it last night in relation to circuses. They will decide whether you will take your children to the circus to see what they termed exotic animals. We are going to see more and more of this nannying from this Government over the next three years.
I would suggest that in the interim, and at the end of that three years, certainly in terms of this topic today - as it will be with all other matters relating to the ACT - very little will be done. There will be a great deal of talk; a great deal of expectation will be generated, although I believe that the electorate is becoming increasingly cynical about this Government's intentions. Anybody who heard the phone-in today on the ABC, about the circus decision last night, will know that it was running three to one against this Government's decision. No doubt, they would query those statistics to the same extent as they queried Mr Stevenson's statistics last night.
However, the problem with this Government seems to be that under the guise of social justice it is constantly attempting to control everybody's lives. There is a lot of platitudinous talk about the poor and how they have to be assisted. They seem to ignore the fact that supply and demand drives all of these matters; and the inner city area becomes more desirable to people, even yuppies, to quote Mr Lamont's interjection, although many of these yuppies seem to be the Gucci socialists or Volvo socialists - it does not matter - whom we have come to recognise are so much a part of Canberra.
Mr Moore: You mean people with a social conscience.
MR CORNWELL: People with a social conscience, Mr Moore suggests. We have a social conscience towards animals. We have 13,000 people unemployed in this city, and we can devote so much time to an animal welfare Bill, looking after exotic circus animals. Nobody addresses the real issues: 13,000 unemployed, and a soup kitchen at Dickson College. That is disgraceful. In the capital city of this nation a soup kitchen is being run.
Mr Berry: A bit of relevance might not hurt.
MR CORNWELL: I do not believe that it is irrelevant at all. I think it is an indictment of your Federal Government's policies.
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, I take a point of order. The subject under debate is urban renewal, and I think Mr Cornwell is clearly not relevant.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Cornwell, please focus your remarks on urban renewal.
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