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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1659 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

It is not just one sided, Chief Minister. It is not just about suddenly getting Kingston going. It is also about what is going to go on Acton Peninsula and how we are going to develop it. Had the issues been resolved, had her Federal colleagues said prior to the election, "We will go ahead with the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia on Acton Peninsula as part of our policy after election", we would have had this report down last year. Instead, we were sensible enough to say, "Perhaps there is going to be a change of government and we do have to hold onto this issue".

Furthermore, the Chief Minister stood up here, Mr Speaker, and certainly pushed the barrier in terms of whether she was reporting accurately to the Assembly when she talked about the motion that the Greens put preventing her from addressing contamination. I am looking at the minutes of 4 May 1995, and the amendment moved by Ms Horodny was:

After the words "money be spent" insert the words "other than assessment of environmental costs and factors including contamination".

I think it is fair to say, Mr Speaker, that, although albeit unintentionally perhaps, the Chief Minister has misled this Assembly in presenting that she could not spend a dollar. I do not suggest that that was intentional, Mr Speaker, but her misunderstanding has clearly put her in strife over this issue. After the report came down she has half read it, she has half understood the motion, and she has half understood the deal. It is all this half-baked business that has got her into the mire which she is in at the moment and which the Assembly committee has tried to extract her from. We have said, "Yes, you can go ahead with Kingston, but subject to this series of things that you should have done first". I do not know who your negotiators were; but if you are going to negotiate a deal and then say, "We will sort out the details later", I think you can expect to find yourself in the sort of strife that you have found yourself in with this issue.

Mr Speaker, I would like to add that there was a whole series of other issues that the committee also dealt with and that the Chief Minister was unable to deal with in a satisfactory way. One of those was whether or not the ACT Aboriginal groups or the Ngunawal Aboriginal groups, some of whom are in the ACT, should have their own cultural centre as part of the Gallery of Aboriginal Australia.

Mrs Carnell: Michael, you could not sort that out either.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, they were, indeed, difficult issues. The Chief Minister correctly interjects, "Michael, you did not sort that out either". That is true, Mr Speaker; but we did take it yet a step further, and I think the Chief Minister would have to agree. We have taken it yet a step further and, Mr Speaker, it is a difficult issue. To say that we should have had a quick look at this, reported back in a couple of weeks and all would have been well is just absolute nonsense. We are able to do that, Chief Minister, and we have done that on a number of issues where the work has been done and the details have been sorted out. Next time you go into negotiations, do not go signing off a great deal in principle and then have the details to sort out later.

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