Page 664 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MRS CARNELL: Look at the letters that I write to you. Those are the areas that are really about social justice, not amendments to legislation such as the Betting (Totalisator Administration) Act. That does not help anyone. It helps nobody. It makes nobody's life better in the ACT. We really have to look at the people out there and have regard to the fact that they are really hurting. The youth unemployment problem in this city is huge. There are lots of ways, as you all know, to improve and overcome that problem. The private sector wants to help and wants to help definitely.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.48), in reply: Madam Speaker, I thank members for their comments on the paper that I presented. At the outset I say to members opposite who have spoken on the paper that I am rather afraid that opposition is beginning to suit them. They have had nothing positive whatsoever to say about the Government's program, or about anybody else's. They have nothing positive to say about the efforts being made by the business sector or about the efforts being made by our research and educational institutions. They have nothing positive to say about our community sector. Of course, but not surprisingly, they have nothing positive whatsoever to say about the Government's program. I would ask members opposite to review their position. Nobody likes a group of people who simply knock things. I know that members opposite are having the greatest difficulty in getting along with each other, but if they treat the Canberra community in that same way, of total negativity, they will pay a very high price for it.
What we have heard from the professional knockers opposite is, unfortunately, nothing more than empty rhetoric which is aimed at fooling themselves. There is no doubt in my mind that that kind of empty rhetoric in no way fools the community. If you want any proof of that you have only to look back to 13 March to see how far the Australian community allowed the wool to be pulled over their eyes - not at all. The ideological rhetoric that was aimed at them by the Liberals - the half-truths, the fairytales that were spun - was totally rejected.
Members opposite ought to learn the lesson from that. We heard over and over again that there was some kind of a scare campaign; in other words, that it was not the Liberals who were wrong, it was the voters. What a load of rubbish! I can think of no more pathetic political position than to go around saying that all those voters were wrong. "We were right and they were wrong", is the stance being taken by the Liberal Party. It is absolute idiocy and it is leading them up a totally blind alley. I think that what members opposite ought to get used to is the fact that Labor keeps its promises. The Government here in the ACT is no exception. I realise that if you are a Liberal it is okay to do what Jeff Kennett did: Tell them one thing before the election, and do the complete opposite immediately afterwards.
If you are a Liberal it is all right to do what Dr Hewson did, namely, say, "I will resign if I change Fightback", and then not resign; and say, "I will resign if I lose the election", and then not resign. The people opposite have to get used to the fact that the Liberals are prepared to put forward those kinds of lies to the community; Labor is not. We do what we say that we are going to do.
I would like to say that, in putting forward this program for the year, I was very pleased indeed to see that the Labor Government had made a great deal of progress in implementing the election promises that we made to the Canberra community. In putting forward the program for this year, we will again take further steps towards the full implementation of our election commitments.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .