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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3022 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

and see whom you should be in here supporting. Another initiative, let me repeat, that we will be putting forward for public comment before we make up our minds, as we do all the time, is the introduction of an off-peak shoppers service from the very suburbs Mr Berry is talking about to the Kippax centre. If there is a need, that service will be provided. If there is no need, the service will not be provided there; it will be provided somewhere else in Belconnen where it is needed.

I turn to Mr Berry's other specific claim - that the Government was cutting the 409 service and in doing so affecting the mobility of a number of elderly residents at Collingrove Court who use that service to get to Kippax shops. Mr Berry, you have the proposed new routes in the document in front of you - or perhaps you do not, because you did not quote from the full document. You were either too ignorant or too lazy to look through the route map and see that the proposed new route 407 - a different number, Mr Berry; 409 goes to 407 - stops at exactly the same spot as the current route 409 and goes to both Kippax and Belconnen. We have changed the number and called it 407 instead of 409. It is nearly the same route, Mr Berry. It stops at exactly the same spot as it has stopped at for the past five or six years, but we have changed the number of the bus from 409 to 407. I do not expect you to be able to understand that, Mr Berry, but there you go. Perhaps you are so underhanded that you knew the fact anyway and chose to ignore it in an effort to score some cheap political points at the expense of your constituents.

Ms Follett: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The imputation that a member has been underhand and has deliberately misrepresented facts must be withdrawn.

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Speaker, I ask you to rule on this. Mr Berry did not get to his feet. He does not seem to be that precious about what I have just said. Ms Follett is taking up Mr Berry's concerns. That seems very strange. Is there a new leadership team being formed? Is Mr Berry so precious - - -

Mr Berry: That is something you would not understand, Tony. It is a team.

MR DE DOMENICO: Would you like me to withdraw that, Mr Berry? If you are very precious, let me know.

MR SPEAKER: If people take offence - it does not have to be the individual - - -

MR DE DOMENICO: I withdraw, Mr Speaker. (Extension of time granted) Either way, Mr Berry should be condemned in this Assembly for his irresponsible actions from time to time. Mr Berry has got it wrong yet again. Last week it was the birthing centre and selling off Canberra's schools. This week it is the buses. Last week it was Mark Baker. Last night it was Geoff Zuber's reasons for resigning. It goes on and on. They are fact-free zones. We cannot trust them on all this sort of stuff. This is another one to run through the truth meter. Quite obviously, they are not interested in the facts, only in scaremongering and getting media attention. That is of great concern because, at the end of the day, nothing has been decided. It is no different to what Mr Lamont and Mr Connolly did. Out it came for public consultation with some sorts of suggestions that

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