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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2482 ..

MR MOORE (12.01 am): On this matter of transport, it was interesting to hear Mr Whitecross's dissertation. I must say that it was much more open than many of the other dissertations and denials we heard from the Labor Party earlier, and certainly it was a refreshingly different approach from that taken by his colleague Mr Connolly a little earlier. Mr Whitecross at least admits that his intention is, as soon as possible, to take over government. What he has failed to do in his dissertation, of course, is recognise that there happens to be a difference between majority governments and the way you wish to operate and minority governments with a crossbench. Under those circumstances, you clearly have in your hands the power - you had it in your hands but you threw it away; we could recover that, if you see the light - to amend this budget and to get the consequence we want without changing government. To you, what is much more important than getting an outcome in terms of education is getting you into government; but what you seem to forget is that my experience has been that, when the Labor Party was in government, it did not help education, it was just as bad. You cut it as well.

MR SPEAKER: Order! We are discussing public transport.

MR MOORE: It did not help public transport. You were prepared to cut that as well. Mr Connolly has been very proud of the fact - and I must say rightly so - that he managed to cut significantly the budget in public transport - - -

Mr Connolly: The cost, not the services.

MR MOORE: The cost of public transport - I accept the correction Mr Connolly makes - and to make public transport much more efficient, which is the issue he was dealing with, to get better outcomes for the dollar there. That was true. Later his colleague Mr Lamont, I think, achieved quite significant advances in that, and I do not believe anybody can take that away from him.

It now appears that the Liberal Government believe that they can do better, and I am prepared to give them a chance to try to improve the efficiencies even further. What I am not prepared to do is give you guys another go at it, because it is not going to be just this area, it will be the lot. I am not going to give you another go, because you blew it last time. The population as a whole recognises that you blew it. When you got a chance this time to protect a couple of parts that I thought might be important to you, you would not act on it. I just indicate to you, Mr Whitecross, because you drew attention to the fact that there was a plethora of amendments suggested after you made it clear that you would not be supporting it, that the one exception to that is the one I have moved.

Mr Whitecross: The one exception is yours.

MR MOORE: I have four or five amendments, but they are a series of different things to try to achieve the same goal. That is the one exception, which you now acknowledge, and I appreciate that.

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