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That is not quite true, I am afraid. The next page tells the truth. Not one Labor member was involved. The Chief Minister was not able to find the time for any Labor member to put their views. Obviously, in Mrs Carnell's opinion, and like the Master Builders Association, our advice is not considered worth listening to. But the Government cannot avoid the truth, which is that these views - ours as well as the Master Builders’ - represent genuine opinions and concerns held by this community, and the community must be listened to and its views given expression.

Privatisation is not supported by the Canberra community, but this Government is proceeding anyway. Jindalee Nursing Home, Kippax and Melba health centres and ACT Fleet are all to be sold. In fact, over the next three years $41m of the community’s assets will be sold to prop up this Government’s waste and mismanagement. The management of Birrigai Environmental Education Centre is to be contracted out, as is the management of our community sporting facilities. A Labor government would not have made any of those decisions.

Not content with cutting public sector jobs and privatising public assets and services, the Government is even attacking public servants’ superannuation. Hidden away in the budget papers, in the fine print, not referred to anywhere by the Chief Minister, was an unannounced Government decision to cut $19m from the Superannuation Provision Trust Account. So, while the liability for superannuation continues to rise, the provision made to meet that liability will fall, and quite drastically. The amount is significant - a total of $57m over three years. The Labor Government put aside an increasing amount of money every year. That sort of careful planning is what earned this Territory its AAA credit rating. I would remind Mrs Carnell that the Territory's rating was upgraded during the term of the Labor Government. It was not, as she implied, inherited from the Commonwealth at the time of self-government. So, Mrs Carnell's unannounced decision may well put that rating at risk. More importantly, it puts at risk the future superannuation entitlements of the public servants who serve our community.

That community has already been forced to pay over $680 a year per household, in the short time since the Liberals came to power, as a result of numerous increases in fees, charges and taxes imposed by this Government. Now we will have to pay more each time we visit a Canberra tip; but not Ainslie Transfer Station, because that is going to be closed - a decision previously rejected by the North Canberra community. You have to give it to the Liberals. They forget nothing and they learn nothing. The Minister for Urban Services will claim that tip fees will subsidise the provision of compost bins, but if you take your trailer to the tip just once a year - I repeat, only once a year - there is no difference between buying your compost bin from the Government and buying it from the local hardware store.

The same Minister is set to slash and burn even the ACT Library Service. If you are young or old or at home or unemployed, the ACT Library Service provides you with very cheap, very educational recreation. The excellence of our local library service is a real feature of Canberra life. This Government is cutting over $1m from libraries. That is $1m from a total library budget of $7m. It is a massive cut, and we have yet to hear a single word about how that is to be achieved.

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