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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 Hansard (15 May) . . Page.. 1280 ..

MR BERRY: It is good to see who is in charge here. Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell. I could call Mrs Carnell Mrs Twenty-Three-Hundred, which stands for the 2,300 unemployed; but I would not, because it would be out of order.

MR SPEAKER: You will call her "Chief Minister" and ask your question.

MR BERRY: I could call her Mrs Twenty Million, for the wasted money in her health budget and the $5m lost in the recently mismanaged industrial dispute; but I will not, because it would be contrary to the standing orders.

MR SPEAKER: You will also get on with your question.

Mr Hird: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I would like to be enlightened, as would the Chief Minister, as to what the question is. We have seen the shenanigans from the crossbenches earlier, which turned this place into a joke, sir. I refer you to standing order 37, which relates to taking control of this house.

MR SPEAKER: You sit down and we will get on with the question. I uphold the point of order, nevertheless. Continue with your question, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: I note that the person who has been described as the guru of corporate shrinkage, Stephen S. Roach, has now declared:

If you compete by building, you have a future. If you compete by cutting, you don't.

He has also said:

Tactics of open-ended down-sizing and real wage compression are ultimately recipes for industrial extinction.

I refer members to an article that appeared in the Canberra Times the other day and was headed "Down-sizing's Wall Street guru admits that he got it all wrong". Noting that much of the Liberals' small government philosophy is built on the philosophy now apparently abandoned by this leading guru, and noting that unemployment has been spiralling upwards since you came to office and that 2,300 more people are on the unemployment list and the ACT business sector is in shock, will the Chief Minister now accept that her own policies of downsizing here in the ACT and John Howard's fixation with small government policy have seriously damaged the ACT economy and sent it into shock? Will the Chief Minister at least agree that these small business-small government philosophies they are so wedded to have blown up in her face?

MRS CARNELL: I am extremely happy to answer that question. First and foremost, the philosophy of this Government is nothing to do with small government; it is to do with living within our means and not spending money that the ACT taxpayer cannot afford. I have heard no indication and I have read no articles in the Canberra Times to suggest that governments should spend money they do not have, incur debt they cannot repay, and give that sort of debt over to their children or to future administrations.

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