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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (22 February) . . Page.. 214 ..

MR WOOD: No; look at the last few months. Two or three of the last six months have shown that result, and you should look at that. If you want to claim credit for 600 people in the March 1995 quarter, you should then accept the responsibility for subsequent quarters. We have a severe problem with the image of the ACT around Australia. Rosemary Follett mentioned a number of figures. She referred to the retail figures - we quote from the ABS data, but Mrs Carnell would not indicate where her figures came from - and those figures are static. We would have expected to have some growth in the December quarter.

Mr De Domenico: There was some growth.

MR WOOD: There was a very small amount compared with the - - -

Mr De Domenico: And it was pretty good in comparison to the rest of the nation.

MR WOOD: No, it was very poor in comparison. That is the point I make, Mr De Domenico. If you examine these figures, if you get a brief from some of your officers on these figures, you might begin to get a little bit concerned.

Mrs Carnell said something about housing activity. Again she was not citing figures. That has been in the doldrums for a long time. That preceded the current Government; but, if you look to the forecast by your officers, it is going to go down. It is not going to go up. You are not projecting any great increase. There are only 2,200 commencements proposed in this year, and 2,300 in 1996-97 - that is after 2,800 in 1994-95 - so you are not projecting any increase. I do welcome the very slight rise over the last few months. I hope that is an indication that something may happen; but, given that population figure, it is difficult to see how that might be sustained. We are all concerned about house prices. What are you doing about that?

Mrs Carnell: What would you do?

Mr De Domenico: Yes, what would you do? Would you release some more land like you did before?

MR WOOD: I would generate some activity around this town.

Mrs Carnell: In the private sector?

MR WOOD: If I were in government - - -

Mr Berry: If I were you, I would resign. Just resign.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Wood has the floor.

MR WOOD: If there were a Labor government on those benches over there, we would have regenerated the capital works program, for example. A little while ago Mr Moore asked a question about the $10m or so that you put into the business sector, if indeed you have spent that; but it appeared to bring no gains in terms of generating any activity in this community. It does not seem to have been very productive. What has it delivered,

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