Page 3738 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 9 December 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO (4.16): Madam Speaker, very quickly, because I have given Mr Wood a commitment for a minute, quite obviously people on this side of the house understand that being a Minister is not an easy task and that Ministers are very busy. From the amount of work all these Ministers seem to have in this place, and Ms Follett said that she was concerned about the number of ministerial conferences Ministers had to attend, quite obviously what we need is the appointment of a fifth Minister. The people on this side of the house would be delighted to support Ms Follett in that move. We acknowledge that there is a lot of work to be done for the people of the ACT, and if it would make it any easier if she were to appoint another Minister - I am sure Mr Lamont would be delighted to be considered - we would not stand in her way.
As my colleagues quite aptly said, we have seen very little from Mr Berry, if anything at all. The Government says, "We are the greatest reformist government ever seen". We are still waiting and waiting. Members opposite talk about slow-slow-quick-quick. I suggest that there is nothing left in the battery across the other side of the house. I do not think they have realised that the toy they have bought does need a battery before it can work.
As Mr Humphries and Mrs Carnell have said - and even Ms Szuty agreed - we do not seem to be getting any pattern here. There are some months when we get 20-odd Bills and other months when we get very few. As Ms Szuty said, we have other things to do besides waiting with bated breath for the Government's agenda. Mrs Carnell quite aptly put the output from Mr Berry as zilch, and other Ministers were not very far behind.
Mr Berry: Don't talk about industrial relations records.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry interjects about industrial relations. That is for another time; I do not want to pre-empt what might be said tomorrow in response to Mr Berry's statement on the industrial relations Ministers conference. That will be an interesting debate, to say the least.
As Mr Humphries and other speakers have said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In the Government's own piece of paper that came onto our desks yesterday, there are 13 Bills still before the Assembly, and 10 out of those 13 Bills happen to be private members Bills.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Wood, you have a minute.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (4.19): Madam Speaker, in the remaining minute I will focus on one of the arguments used by the people opposite. It is as illogical as all their arguments. Numbers of them have said that we must stop our factional fighting. I can tell you that on this side we do not have that situation. You pose that question from your own background of experience, where you know that there is constant fighting over there, and you therefore expect that it will be like that somewhere else. That is simply not the case; I can assure you of that.
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