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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 941 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

of time, and I think it is quite appropriate that we therefore move to extend the time for the MPI to take account of any extra time the member uses. It is quite simple. Mr Whitecross is not going to make a welter of this; I am sure of that. He is going to conclude his speech within what would be the normal time, merely to take account of those precious minutes that were soaked up by Mr Humphries playing games.

Question resolved in the negative.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.03): Mr Speaker, it is interesting to hear the Labor Party continually use the word "crisis". The real crisis they need to face is the crisis in their own ranks all around this country, in every State and Territory, but mostly here in the ACT. Quite honestly, after hearing - - -

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order on relevance.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The Chief Minister has only just begun speaking.

Mr Whitecross: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: Mr Berry rose on a point of order in relation to something that is actually a standing order, namely, relevance, and was dismissed out of hand. Mr Humphries raised a point of order that related to no standing order at all, and you entertained him for four minutes.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Sit down, Mr Whitecross.

MRS CARNELL: I am fascinated, because the one sentence that I have so far managed to say was about the word "crisis", which is the third word in their MPI. It would seem to me extremely relevant, really. What we hear from those opposite is this carping and moaning about the supposed crisis, when you have to look at why there is a crisis, if there is one. The crisis we are talking about here is an $8 billion Beazley black hole that was left by the previous Federal Labor Government. Why does the new Federal Government need to reduce expenditure? Because they ended up inheriting an $8 billion black hole in the budget. That is what the problem is. That is the same problem that every Liberal or coalition government around this country has inherited. It is Labor mismanagement. There is a situation where governments, this one included, inherited budget shortfalls that no-one can live with. That means that it is important to pull back expenditure.

The Howard Government made it quite clear in the election campaign that they were looking to reduce the Australian Public Service by some 2,500 positions and voluntary redundancies. How does that compare with the recent history of the Australian Public Service under the Federal Labor Government? Unlike those opposite, I would like to table the Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin for 1994-95 - - -

Mr De Domenico: A special copy for Mr Wood. He kept calling for it before.

MRS CARNELL: Yes, a special copy - unlike those opposite, who quote figures without any knowledge whatsoever of where they come from. This document shows that in 1994-95 there were 5,600 retrenchments from the Australian Public Service.

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