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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4642 ..

Debate resumed.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, there is no indication whatsoever that the Commonwealth does not support the thrust of the strategic - - -

Ms McRae: Nor is there any indication that they do.

MRS CARNELL: No, I am sorry; the Minister was quoted in the media as saying that he does support the thrust. We believe that we will have commitment from the Commonwealth to the strategic plan when their bureaucratic process is complete; when they have gone through the coordinating comments process; when they have gone through the Cabinet process; when they have gone through the joint parliamentary committee and so on.

I am fascinated, Mr Speaker, that those opposite believe that somehow we should put this whole process on hold while we wait for some bureaucratic Commonwealth Government committees to look at our document. Quite seriously, Mr Speaker, I find that approach from Ms McRae absolutely amazing. Certainly, we will be looking for commitment, written commitment, to the document from the Commonwealth. I believe that that will happen when they finish their very long processes. The Minister has already said, and I state it again, that he supports the general thrust of the document. The Prime Minister has said that he supports the general thrust of the document; but that, apparently, is not good enough. I am very happy to come back to this Assembly when the Commonwealth have gone through all of their enormously convoluted processes. That is fine. I think I made the point when I tabled this document, or when I announced this document yesterday, that we very much hoped that was the case.

Mr Speaker, I think it is very important to again make the point to this Assembly about the level of the work that was done by the NCA and the ACT Government in putting together this document.

Mr De Domenico: Its genesis was under Brian Howe.

MRS CARNELL: The genesis was under Brian Howe. The decision on how the consultation would work and how the strategic planning approach would be carried out was made conjointly with Brian Howe, not any sort of Liberal government. (Extension of time granted)

Mr Speaker, I believe that those opposite are just attempting, for no particularly good reason, to bash anything that moves. They have not put up anything that they would do, except potentially go back to a 1993 document - a time that was enormously different in Canberra. It was before the current economic problems that we have. It was a time when we still had, at least, basic growth. It was different from now. To suggest that a strategic

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