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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (22 February) . . Page.. 206 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

The entire community is paying more for petrol under the Liberals. Let us get back to basics and look at what has happened with petrol. The Liberals postured endlessly when Labor actually took action that brought prices down. The Liberals promised in their written document "a reduction in the ACT petrol tax by 3c a litre". No ifs, no buts, no maybes. Those were their precise words - "a reduction in the ACT petrol tax by 3c a litre". Of course that never happened, and it never will. There was $5m a year promised for marketing Canberra. In fact, less than $2m was delivered, and the Canberra Tourism Commission had to cancel a proposed advertising campaign because the Government did not give them sufficient funds.

In education policy, this was the list of promises from the Liberals. Schoolchildren were promised free buses to and from primary and secondary schools and colleges. That one was thrown straight into the garbage bin by the totally discredited Education Minister. Students still have to pay to get to school - unless of course they go to Charnwood High School, because that one has been closed. Not even the unanimous opposition of over 200 members of the school community could stop Mr Stefaniak ratting on another Liberal promise. That promise was "not to close any ACT school without the demonstrated support of that school's community". The closure of Charnwood High School was opposed absolutely by the Charnwood school community.

With the Liberals, consultation means making the decision, maybe letting the community have their say - on a good day; not always, not invariably. Regardless of that, they then ignore them and proceed with the decision anyway. The school community was told:

A Liberal Government will guarantee to maintain current levels of ACT education funding indexed for inflation over the next three years.

This was simply not delivered in the 1995-96 budget. The Government argues that it was. I think they are the only people in this community who are in any danger of believing their own propaganda. The only people who think that, as I say, are the seven Liberals opposite. It is not even unanimous in their own party room, I happen to know.

On the environment, the Liberals, in their election promises, said that the community would get "a register of contaminated sites in the ACT". The Minister has now declared that there will be no register of contaminated sites. When I say that this Government is the most secretive that the ACT has ever had, I can demonstrate it as a fact. There are about 150 known sheep dip sites in the ACT, but the Minister will not tell the Canberra community where they are, what they contain, what testing has been done on each site or anything else. If you think freedom of information might help, you can forget it. They have in fact closed the FOI office. If you look at where it was, there is the most confusing list of phone numbers, which many people in our community could not read, on a locked door. That is their idea of freedom of information.

Let us look at the Liberal policies in the area of health, the one area that Mrs Carnell has made her own. What she promised was that operating theatre efficiency would be improved by extending their use to evening and weekend sessions. In fact, theatre time is down. Health services were to be devolved closer to the people; that was the promise.

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