Page 1216 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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to their record on school closures during their term in government. They, first of all, put up the hit list of schools and then conducted a kind of a sham consultation process, having already caused enormous distress in the community. They have not changed. Mr Cornwell is still going around pointing the finger at different schools, putting the frighteners on them and worrying them unduly that their school may be about to be closed. He has a hit list. We know that. Any suggestion that he may be prepared to consult on that is pure naivety, in my view.
On the issue of the local council, Mrs Carnell came down from the Eagle Hawk Motel with the tablets under her arm and said, "Let us have a local council". Even her own party has not supported that view. Even her own party has supported a full State type of government. Now that she has made that decision she wants to put it to the community; she wants to let the community have a say. How about letting Mr Kaine have a say first? You did not consult him. In speaking today it was quite clear that he had not foreseen this bolt from the blue, Madam Speaker. I call on the Liberals to take a lesson from the Labor Party, both in government and in opposition, on consultation. Make it a real process. That means asking people for their views - not dictating to them what your views are, and then subsequently acting upon those views. They have never demonstrated that they are able to take that approach, whether they are in government or in opposition. I would anticipate that the community, having seen them in both modes, will be quite happy to leave them in opposition for many, many years to come.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.23): In less than six weeks this Government will be faced with the news that at least $68m could quite possibly be stripped from its Commonwealth grant. The news was predicted in April's release of the Grants Commission report. Yet this Government sits idly by as if nothing has happened, hoping that the Grants Commission has got it wrong. Ms Follett mentioned the letter to Mr Keating. I wonder whether it said, "Dear Paul, Help!". Signed: "Rosemary". They are also doing their best - - -
Mr Cornwell: She would have to put "Follett" after that. He would not know who was talking.
Mr Lamont: This is really incisive political invective; an incisive critique on financial management.
Mr Connolly: You dropped Trevor for this?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Carnell has the floor.
Mr Humphries: And you are worried.
MRS CARNELL: They are also doing their best - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: You have a lot of assistance there, Mrs Carnell.
MRS CARNELL: Thank you. I do have a lot of assistance.
They are doing their best to make sure that the people of Canberra know as little as possible about the real financial situation which Canberra faces. Rather than consult the community - that does mean, as Ms Follett said, asking the community what they want and consulting them over some of the hard decisions that must be made - they prefer to bulldoze through their own agenda, regardless
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