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MRS CARNELL: You were suggesting that they did exist before March. Thank you, Mr Connolly. I wanted to be sure of that. This Government will be about delivering; it will not be about rhetoric. It will be about determining what our problems are and getting on to solve them. The Government understands and I think everyone in this Assembly understands, hopefully, that the people of Canberra want a new type of government to run this city, and they have it; but we are learning, as is this whole Assembly. There will be times when we get it wrong, and when we do we will admit it. What we will do is listen and, hopefully, as an Assembly, we will move forward together. There will be a fresh vision for the Territory - one that is determined to make Canberra a city that people want to live in, a city that is a pleasure to live in, that people can live in; one that is truly focused on putting the ACT in the forefront of national developments, not in a backwater but in the forefront of where we are going as a nation.

It is very interesting to note that aspects of our approach are already being replicated elsewhere in Australia. I was interested to see that last week, in Melbourne, the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, launched the Employment Services Regulatory Authority, which, very interestingly, is going to be chaired by the former Labor Premier of Victoria, Joan Kirner. This authority, which will be known as ESRA, will offer the resources of government, the community and the private sector to job seekers who have been unemployed for more than a year. We will see them really working together with the community and the private sector - that nasty private sector that Mr Berry always speaks about in such glowing terms, to say the least! These long-term unemployed people will be able to choose a case manager from any one of these sectors, and, in return, the managing agency will receive an outcome fee for successful placements within 13 weeks. The scheme will encourage competition, regulate the market, and establish best practice in case management; and this will be achieved through a partnership, as I said, between the sectors.

The same principles underlie the policies of this Government. What we are talking about here is not the private sector being the be-all and end-all, or the public sector or the community sector being the only way to go. What we have to do, especially in a little place like the ACT, is work together to get best outcomes, as was suggested in this new approach from the Federal Government, the ESRA initiative, which we think is a really great way to go.

Mr Speaker, the Canberra that we manage will be different. It will be different in the way that it manages its business and its finances. It will be different in the directions that we set for the economy to achieve sustained economic growth. It will be different in the exciting cultural and tourist developments that will facilitate things like the Kingston foreshore development. It will be different in the way that the public services, such as health, are delivered to the community, and different in the more modest and more accessible style of government that we develop.

Mr Speaker, I welcome the attention that this statement has received, both in the Assembly and in the community. What was sad, Mr Speaker, was the approach that Ms Follett took to this whole situation. She panned absolutely everything. There was not one comment in her whole speech that suggested that anything about our direction and what we are planning was a good idea for Canberra. She actually suggested that we did not support Speedrail. I have two letters in front of me here - one dated

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