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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 10 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 2683 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Sometimes Mrs Carnell tries to pretend that there is something new in all of this. Mr Kaine tried it and it did not work for him, and it is not going to work for Mrs Carnell. The community are already - - -

Mrs Carnell: Getting really cross with you.

MR BERRY: They are rising against what is occurring. Mrs Carnell interjects, "They are getting very cross". Indeed, they are getting cross, because they are very sick of this repeat performance which, I am sure, before the last election Mrs Carnell tried to create the impression would not be the case. The Liberal-dominated Alliance Government also established the Priorities Review Board, and guess what the Priorities Review Board recommended. It recommended the disposal of a whole range of community assets, including Jindalee Nursing Home. Mrs Carnell is saying, "I am doing something new for the Territory". In fact, she is just picking up all the old issues. The closure of the old Royal Ainslie Transfer Station - RATS, as it was more affectionately called - was also something which we can thank the Alliance Government for.

We remember the dark shadows which hung over Canberra when Mr Kaine was in charge; but we can also see that not much has changed in the Liberal Party, because the old philosophies keep creeping through. Today's debate about the saving of health centres and other services and facilities throughout the Territory is in many ways a repeat of the fights that went on in the past to save these sorts of facilities for the people of the Territory. We all recall the massive number of signatures that came in in relation to the Royal Canberra Hospital. Mr Humphries sounded the death knell on that one, because he went ahead with his plans to close it. By the time Labor came back to government there was merely a shell left. The hospital had been gutted.

The closure of Weston Creek Health Centre is another one that Mr Humphries can rack up. He did not ever get away with Kippax Health Centre. He did not get away with Melba Health Centre, and I hope that Mrs Carnell does not get away with it now, because I think they have provided - - -

Mrs Carnell: We are not planning to close it, so it is all right.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell interjects, "We are not planning to close it". All she is planning to do is what Mr Stefaniak did with Charnwood High School - strangle it and remove all the services. Then it will just wither on the vine and die. Then she will say, "We are not to blame. It was somebody else's fault".

Mr Connolly: Probably our fault, Wayne.

MR BERRY: That is right. She will probably blame the Labor Opposition. Mr Speaker, it is 1989 revisited. You still have a tenacious Labor team over here fighting for the community. We intend to ensure that there is a significant reduction in the damage that you might wish to inflict on the community.

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