Page 649 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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I am sure that people living out on the streets, in rubbish bins, or struggling to keep food in the mouths of their families, will be gratified to learn that the problem is difficult and the Chief Minister will do what she can. I am sure that they read that and then have a very joyful day. I hope, Madam Speaker, that the just returned Keating Government, the architects of the recession -
Mr Wood: Say that again.
MR KAINE: I hope that the architects of the recession will be of assistance to Ms Follett, but I doubt it.
Mr Cornwell: The great breaker of promises.
MR KAINE: Yes, it was less than five days before he broke his first one. The people of the ACT will live to rue the day that they opted for the devil they knew. Those are not my words.
What is the Government's program? What is the strategy that will get the ACT out of its deep problems? What will the Government do to give hope to the young, the school leavers and the tertiary studies graduates who cannot get a job and who, under this Government, are unlikely to get one for some time yet?
Mr Lamont: I rise to a point of order, Madam Speaker.
MR KAINE: What? I am making a strong point, am I?
Mr Lamont: No, not at all, but in fact the comment that Mr Kaine has just made is in direct contravention to a comment that was made on 16 February 1993 at page 36 of Hansard, where Mr De Domenico said:
But you do not have long to wait because, come 13 March, there will be vision nationally and the ACT will be part of that vision.
You were correct, Mr De Domenico; the Leader of the Opposition is wrong.
MR KAINE: It is hardly a point of order, Madam Speaker. I think he should not be interrupting my speech.
MADAM SPEAKER: I agree with you, Mr Kaine; it is hardly a point of order.
MR KAINE: His arrow did not strike home, anyway, because we come back to this devil that you know. Madam Speaker, before I was interrupted, I was talking about these young people who cannot get a job and who, under this Government and the Keating Government, are unlikely to get one for some time. Just when is this Government going to stop the platitudes and begin to do something positive and specific to create the odd job around this town - and I mean positive and specific? What sort of government program is it that consists entirely of developing ecotourism and agonising over assessing the social equity implications of government programs? That is about what their program does.
I remind the Assembly that the creation of a separate ACT Public Service, for example, is not a new program. I have been pursuing it for years. Even now it is going ahead only because Paul Keating directed that it did. I am not comforted by the knowledge that the process is to be pursued slowly. There is no excuse
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