Page 2174 - Week 08 - Thursday, 10 September 1992
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with the Acton Peninsula and the Kingston foreshores planning so that we can get something going there. Capital works projects must be undertaken more swiftly to provide employment. The committee has recommended a $15m increase in that program, and I am sure that Mr Lamont will support me on that request. Longer-term initiatives such as the creation of the freight link at Canberra Airport, the updating of the airport to take tourists, and the revival of the very fast train project should be pursued actively by this Government.
The Government has a clear choice to capitalise on the surplus or to let the ACT wallow in the economic morass in which we are increasingly mired under this Labor Government. I sincerely hope, Madam Speaker, that the Government will show some initiative and resolve and take the first choice, not remain inactive and preside over the second by omission, as they have demonstrated consistently they are prepared to do.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (11.36): Madam Speaker, that was a joke of a speech that can essentially be described as the bleating of a frustrated opposition that is going nowhere. I will deal with a couple of the matters raised by Mr Kaine in relation to the health budget - matters that were presented in a way to create the impression that something was wrong when it is not. Mr Kaine tries to create the impression that there is something untoward going on when he refers to "the mysterious business rules". They are not mysterious, Mr Kaine. You are wrong. They are a set of business rules that have been made available in this house, a copy of which you should have read, and they would not have been mysterious to you.
Mr Kaine: It is not mysterious to me, but it is a bit shonky.
MR BERRY: It would be mysterious to you because you do not pay attention very much. Mrs Carnell gets agitated about this because she too is frustrated and sets out to talk down the health system, attack the public health system and show the Liberals' general upset about public enterprise in the ACT. They are fanatics when it comes to applauding the private sector. They are similarly fanatics when it comes to putting down the public sector. That sort of fanaticism is aimed at talking down successful public enterprise. The mysterious business rules Mr Kaine referred to are not mysterious. They are only mysterious to him.
Mr Kaine: Why do you not apply them to DELP and to Urban Services and all the rest, if they are so good?
MR BERRY: What happened with the Liberals was that they created such a mess in health that we had to create a set of circumstances to demonstrate to the community of the ACT exactly what was going on. We were able to do that. We put them on the table in this Assembly, but Mr Kaine did not take the time to read them. He made another inaccurate statement, again a statement which will mislead if it is seen by a reasonable person in the street. He said, "Mr Berry was the only Minister who had access to excess funding". That is untrue.
Mr Kaine: That is not quite what I said, but you can interpret it that way if it suits you.
MR BERRY: That is what you said. Supplementation is available across the board. Mr Kaine, the failed former Treasurer, ought to know that and he ought not to say something that is inaccurate and attempt to mislead people into a conclusion that is incorrect. That is what he set out to do. That is the sign of
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