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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1172 ..

MR BERRY: No, I will not; not unless you order me to, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: I do.

MR BERRY: Okay; I withdraw it.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

MR BERRY: That is a new standard. Whatever the Chief Minister wants she gets in this place, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Continue, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, these shonky actions that have been taken by this Government have been exposed by this committee inquiry.

Mr De Domenico: Oh, dear! You are nice! We like you too, Wayne! You do not want to get personal, do you?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry has the floor.

MR BERRY: It has been exposed by this committee of inquiry.

Mrs Carnell: What has been exposed? There is nothing in here.

MR BERRY: Your gross mismanagement of the health portfolio has been exposed; your gross incompetence as a Treasurer has been exposed. Mr Speaker, this public relations stunt has been exposed as well. Mr Speaker, this Appropriation Bill does not deserve support, and neither did the first one. That ought to be the position which we follow in this Assembly. Mr Speaker, it is a shonk on all grounds.

MR HIRD (11.38): Firstly, I would like to thank the secretary, the staff and all those who assisted the committee in its deliberations.

Mr De Domenico: I am sure that Mr Berry would have wanted to do that too.

MR HIRD: That is true. I particularly want to address and to draw members' attention to my dissenting opinion. Indeed, the report from the Estimates Committee was an opinion. Why is this parliament wasting so much time and indulging in so much hogwash over whether the Chief Minister ought to have sought the parliament's approval for the appropriation of an additional $14.2m for the health budget or whether she should simply have transferred the amount from other programs to the health budget, as she has the power to do? I submit that the Chief Minister has taken the correct approach by introducing Appropriation Bill (No. 2) and by informing, through this house, the people of the ACT.

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