Page 436 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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You can almost hear the teeth gnashing as that phrase "the system chosen by the people of Canberra" is uttered. This Government hates the system chosen by the people of Canberra. This Government would love to dump the system chosen by the people of Canberra, and actually tried to do that not two months ago. Fortunately for the people of this Territory, they did not get away with that, and they will not in the future.
We have not seen the public sector Bill yet, as Mr Kaine pointed out. That is a crucial piece of legislation that was promised to be in place by February this year. What did Ms Follett, or somebody else in her Government, say at the time? They said, "The Liberals are going to try to delay this matter; the Liberals are going to try to block this important piece of legislation". We do not need to. You are doing a good job by yourselves. I am concerned about more important issues than the shallow references made by the Chief Minister in her statement last week. I am concerned about the real issues - the quality of our health system, the future job prospects for young people in this city, and the fundamental strength of our economic basis in the Territory. Those are matters given scant regard by this Government, and that is shameful.
There are a couple of things about this statement which I think are actually worth congratulating the Government for, perhaps giving them a few laurels they can rest on in the future. I note that for the first time the list of Bills coming before the Assembly contains details of what the Bills are about. In previous years there have been broad references such as "amendment to the Crimes Act" or "amendment to the Public Health Act". That is practically useless; we do not know exactly what that means. It is good that we can see what the Government is talking about. It might limit their capacity to repeat these suggestions in future years, as they have been prone to do in the past.
I note that first priority is given to the mutual recognition Bills for various health professionals. I also note that that has been a first priority, or a high priority, for at least three years. Goodness knows how it can remain a high priority and not actually get done.
Mr Kaine: They should have a look at the ones that are down at priority five.
MR HUMPHRIES: Goodness knows what the bottom of the rung manages to get. We will probably reach them by about the year 2000. Nonetheless, despite the fact that we have a nice description here, the sense of deja vu is rather overpowering. I hope that we will not have to see 61 of these 107 Bills repeated in next session's program, as we have for this session.
There are a few Bills that, I have to say, I welcome seeing on this program. The Native Title Bill is, of course, a very important piece of legislation. It is a piece of legislation which, I note, we called for following the concern expressed about the Mabo decision at least six months ago and which Ms Follett and her Government, Mr Connolly in particular, denied was necessary. They said that there was no need for such legislation to occur.
Ms Follett: That is not true.
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