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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4345 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

One of the things that caught my attention was the agonising which obviously went on in the party convention over the Government's bizarre supermarket trading hours laws. They were clearly desperately trying to find a formula to extricate the Government from their embarrassing decision to close supermarkets against the wishes of the vast majority of people in the community. The Liberal Party president said on radio that the Government needs to seek community opinion and facts and figures to back its case. Mr Speaker, as we all in this place know, they are going to be in a lot of trouble on that because when they seek community opinion they will find out that the vast majority of people in Canberra think it was a lousy idea. Maybe the president of the Liberal Party is hoping that they will seek that opinion, and then will turn around, change their minds, and back away from it. It is heartening, I suppose, to think that some of the members of the Liberal Party were trying to help the Government out on this one because the Government really has made a meal of it. Obviously, the party membership are feeling the heat and embarrassment of the Government's rather poorly thought out decision.

Mr Speaker, I noticed that they also discussed immigration and Aboriginal affairs. According to Mr Nye, they gave the Prime Minister a big wrap for his handling of immigration matters. As Mr Berry pointed out earlier, Mr Howard has studiously refused to use the "H" word, or to mention the disendorsed Liberal member for Oxley. Apparently, the local Liberal Party think that Mr Howard's soft handling of this issue is to be commended.

Perhaps the most bizarre information that we got on the Liberal Party conference on the weekend was about the deliberations on the vexed issue of jobs and employment. Mr Speaker, you will know from your following of the debates here that there are 5,600 fewer jobs in the ACT than there were 12 months ago. There are 2,700 more unemployed people than when the Liberal Party came to government. For 12 successive months employment has been dropping and retail turnover is falling, in trend and seasonally adjusted terms. Mr Speaker, obviously, it is a very serious question and one that you would expect, quite rightly, to tax the attention of the Liberal Party convention. So what did they have to say about that? Mr Nye said that these issues will be discussed next year. Obviously, it is a very important issue and he hopes that they get around to it next year. Obviously, the ACT division has as many ideas as the Government has on what to do about the state of economic growth, and they are hoping that between now and next year they will come up with some ideas and they will be able to contribute them to the debate.

Mr Speaker, I do not know whether this was discussed on the weekend, but perhaps the most interesting thing that Mr Nye said on the radio yesterday was when he talked about Cheryl Hill, the two-time Liberal candidate who is putting her hand up to be an Independent running for the seat of Fraser in the forthcoming election. Mr Nye thinks very highly of Cheryl Hill. He said of Cheryl Hill, "I think she will do well". Members opposite need to listen to this. The president of the Liberal Party says of someone who has just defected from the party and is going to run for the seat of Fraser, "I think she will do well. She has the right profile and is very passionate". Then he said, "I wish her well in her campaign". This is someone the Liberal Party want us to believe has nothing to do with the Liberal Party. They stand back from her.

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