Page 3580 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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What happened earlier this year in Gungahlin? We saw in the newspaper a picture of the Chief Minister at the Yarralumla Nursery proudly declaring that Gungahlin was about to receive 9,000 trees. Madam Speaker, these were not all native trees. In fact a very large percentage of them were exotic trees - cherry plums, Manchurian pears, Chinese elms - which are not really attractions for native birds, it seems. If this report is right, we are aiming to be the "city of parrots" by 1995.
Mr Cornwell: We are the city of galahs now.
MRS CARNELL: Many people would say that that is probably a fair description, Mr Cornwell. The Chief Minister, I suggest, Madam Speaker, had better start talking to Yarralumla Nursery about the sale of Manchurian pears and cherry plums. It is suggested, and suggested regularly, that the planting of native species is the way to go for the future if we are to head down this track. Again, Madam Speaker, a vision needs to be shared and it appears that the Reference Group did not quite share their vision with the Chief Minister.
The 2020 report also talks about a fifth ministry in the new ACT regional government. Surely this report is not talking about the David Lamont show, or is it? He is not even here.
Mr De Domenico: Yes, he is. He is smiling, thinking "What a good idea!".
MRS CARNELL: Yes. Mr Lamont, we know, dreams about being Chief Minister. From what we see at the moment he only really manages to be chief headkicker. It is very sad for Mr Lamont that he might have to wait until 2020, assuming that a Labor government exists by that stage. Anyway, we certainly have found out that it is going to be a very long wait.
On a more serious note, Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party does welcome the preferred vision for government as outlined in the report because it very much matches our own vision and totally contrasts with that of the Labor people opposite. The report says that government will have a flatter organisational structure and that there will be bipartisan policy and decision making - a ringing endorsement for the ACT Liberals' position that there should be a less adversarial and a more participatory style of government, a more council-style of government
Mr Lamont: A what?
MRS CARNELL: A less adversarial and a more participatory style of government, Mr Lamont. The report goes on to say:
All public servants work on contracts, and there is no more security of tenure than for the private sector. There is no age of retirement -
that is something we support -
and part time work is commonplace, among men as well as women.
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