Page 2345 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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Where in that statement did I oppose this building? I did not. So Ms Ellis is misrepresenting me, I submit, in putting that position. In a second interview, later the same morning, I was asked:
... do you support the construction of this new building?
Diana Watts of Capital Television asked me that question. My answer was:
Yes, I do. I've been saying for some time that the Commonwealth, in today's economy, should have been getting on with some of these construction projects.
Where did I oppose the building? Ms Ellis cannot prove that I did, because the fact is that I did not. I have supported this building. Later in the morning again, Claudia Oakley, of ABC radio, asked me a question and I said:
I've said over recent months that I've thought the Commonwealth should embark on some capital projects including the York Park development ...
Again I ask Ms Ellis: Where did I oppose this building? She obviously misunderstands my position. She obviously does not understand when I speak. I do not oppose this building. I have never opposed it and I am being misrepresented.
Ms Follett jumped into the picture then. She is going to do everything to get this building up before the end of the year, she says, because we need it. But where did she spring to the support of the ACT and say, "We also want the refurbishment of the old Parliament House and we want the Museum of Australia"? She did not say that. It was very easy to say this because it is totally out of her hands; she has nothing to do with it. Yet she says that she has ordered her bureaucrats. To do what? It is a Commonwealth program on Commonwealth land and funded by the Commonwealth. Of course, Mrs Kelly gets into the act too. Mrs Kelly demands that Trevor Kaine distance himself from John Hewson. Why would I? I have read John Hewson's comment; I agree with him entirely. The building is needed. The officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are entitled to reasonable accommodation. The building that they are in is unsatisfactory. That is what I said. That is what John Hewson said. But, of course, you will misrepresent. Either you do not listen and you do not hear, or you deliberately misrepresent; I do not know which.
While we are on the question of misrepresenting John Hewson and misrepresenting the members of the Liberal Party in this Assembly, we also have some contempt for the unemployed, says Ms Ellis. I would like to know what this Government has done for the unemployed in the last 24 hours. They even misrepresent their capital works program; they pretend to put it about that it is going to create 3,500 jobs. It is not going to create 3,500 jobs. It is merely going to support the existing work force, although there might be, maybe, 500 new jobs - that is if the private sector can drag itself off its knees and employ more people. They are doing what the Follett Government is trying to do. They are trying to do their job with fewer people because they cannot afford to employ more people. There is no guarantee whatsoever that the contractors who take on that work will hire more people. They will try to do it with the people they have and maintain their businesses at the current level.
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