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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4089 ..

MR SPEAKER: It depends entirely on the circumstances. I remember a previous discussion, but I have yet to see where this has relevance.

MR BERRY: It is relevant, because we were accused of doing nothing and those opposite claimed that they had done something in the form of a budget. I am just referring to how shallow it was and why we would not do that sort of thing. It would be a fraud on the community to do that sort of thing. She talked about a casemix funding saving of $26m. We know that Mrs Carnell promised to save $30m in health. That has evaporated. She talked about sharing resources with New South Wales and saving a couple of million dollars, using private health facilities and saving $5m.

MR SPEAKER: How can you relate that in 1994 to what we are discussing at the moment?

MR BERRY: I am trying to tell you why we would not do it. It is a fraud. I need go no further.

Mrs Carnell: He is actually quoting from my response to their budget when we were in opposition.

MR BERRY: Indeed. We would not do that sort of thing, because it is a fraud and it is dishonest. That was a public relations exercise which you tried to perpetrate on the community. This budget here is another public relations exercise. You keep harping about 600 new jobs. The figures from the ABS show that we are 5,600 jobs down.

Mrs Carnell: They show that we have 600 more jobs since we came to office.

MR BERRY: I will read out the figures for you. This is the total employed: October 1995, 159,700; October 1996, 154,100. That comes to about 5,600 in my book.

Mrs Carnell: Six hundred extra jobs.

MR BERRY: Five thousand, six hundred fewer jobs. Then we have a look at the unemployment rate.

Mrs Carnell: No, it is not.

MR BERRY: The facts speak for themselves.

Mr Whitecross: Be careful about saying, "The facts speak for themselves". You might get called on to withdraw that.

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