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MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Training) (11.55): I have listened with amazement to Mr Berry's performance. I must admit that he was moving around a lot; that was about the most animated I have seen him. I commend him for being rather polite. What a lot of fallacies he talked about. Firstly, on the Royal Canberra Hospital, he blames Mr Humphries for that. The Labor Government - the second Follett Government - took over in early June 1991 and had ample opportunity to reverse any closure. In fact it was they who went ahead and closed the Royal Canberra Hospital.

Mr De Domenico: Who closed it?

MR STEFANIAK: The Labor Government, the Follett Government.

Mr De Domenico: They spent $50,000 to get somebody to tell him not to close it, and then they blame the guy who told him not to.

MR STEFANIAK: That is right, and then they went ahead anyway. So, the hospital was closed during the time of a Labor government, when Mr Berry was the Health Minister, I think.

Mr De Domenico: Was he?

MR STEFANIAK: I think he was, Mr De Domenico, yes. Mr Berry made a great song and dance in relation to schools. I note that under the Alliance Government four schools were closed; under the second Follett Government, when Mr Wood was the Education Minister, the Griffith Primary School closed of its own volition. So, that was closed during the time of a Labor government; yet Mr Berry makes a great song and dance, blaming Mr Humphries for gutting the education system. What a load of codswallop, to use Mr Berry's term. That is painfully ridiculous, and Mr Berry should appreciate the facts instead of using so much rhetoric, and incorrect rhetoric at that. Mr Berry understands ideology very well - the old, tired, leftist ideology of the Labor Party - and the rigidity that is implied within that. That was probably one of the main reasons why, in the second term of the Assembly, the Follett Government fell. It was very rigid and it did not have much imagination. Quite clearly, the people of Canberra were sick and tired of it, and that is why it got only about 30 per cent of the vote.

The Chief Minister, in her speech last week outlining the Government's priorities for Canberra, indicated a new approach, a cooperative approach, which I think people in Canberra really want to see happen. Mr De Domenico went at some length into how this Government will consult and take with it other members of this Assembly. When you have only seven people, you need to do that. I think the whole thrust of our campaign, as the Chief Minister's speech said, is a cooperative approach to government in the Territory and an innovative approach as well, using a little bit of imagination.

I can understand why Mr Berry finds what happened in relation to Acton and Kingston totally incomprehensible. Maybe he does not have all that much imagination. The Kingston development is a very exciting proposal. Various proposals have been around for some time for developing the Kingston foreshore. I can recall Ian Hirst coming to see me with a proposal in 1989, within a few weeks of the First Assembly

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