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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4629 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Ossie Kleinig makes it very clear in today's paper. I quoted him at question time and I quote him again:

We are in agreement with virtually everything. In fact, it could have been written from the files of the council and its predecessor, the Canberra Association for Regional Development. Most of the points it contains have been our policy at least since self-government.

You have set a spin on what people said to you in a genuine fashion. They responded genuinely in what they thought and I thought was a serious exercise. The Chief Minister, in the same sort of spin, continues to say to other members of the Assembly, "You have not even had time to read it. You were out making comments when you had not had time to read it". Of course we had time to read it. When I sat down while you were speaking in the press conference when you released it the other day, I was able to go through every single page and test it against the draft copy that I had been given two months ago and to see that the changes had been absolutely minimal - not only minimal, but minuscule. Do not continue to put that sort of spin on. Continuing the spin is this discourse that you set up about what is affordable and what is not affordable. "Affordable" is a relative term. It is not a question of affordability at all, which is the spin you have put on here. It is a question of priorities, Chief Minister. It has always been a question of priorities.

It gives me a great deal of anguish to come here today and to move an amendment in relation to the strategic plan. It gives me a great deal of anguish to do what I can to ensure that the Assembly does not adopt this. Why?

Mrs Carnell: We have not asked the Assembly to adopt it.

MR MOORE: You have not asked the Assembly, but the Assembly is going to tell you, Chief Minister.

Mrs Carnell: We have asked you just to note it.

MR MOORE: That is right. You have asked the Assembly to take note of the paper. This is an opportune time for me to move my amendment. The Chief Minister asked the Assembly to take note of the paper. I move the following amendment:

Add the words "as Liberal Party ideology and is not adopted by the Assembly".

The motion will then read:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper as Liberal Party ideology and is not adopted by the Assembly.

That makes it very clear that it just is not good enough. I could have used the word "reject", but I accept that there is some quite good work in the document. We will get to that, but unfortunately it is overwhelmed by this underlying discourse and underlying philosophy of the ecorats. I am disappointed to have to say that.

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