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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4647 ..

MR OSBORNE (5.15): I thank Mr Moore for his clarification. I will be brief, Mr Speaker. I have not had the luxury of most people in this house. I have not had a good look at this report yet. I must admit that two things made me very nervous about this report. The first was the colour, the Liberal Party blue. I was a little bit nervous when I saw the blue on there. Secondly, Mr Speaker, whenever I am watching the news and I see prominent members of the business community come out in support of the issues of this Government, I also get nervous.

Mr Speaker, in all seriousness, I have not had the opportunity to read through this report, so I do not think I am in any position to condemn it or to endorse it. I was not a member of the previous Assembly, so I have no idea what the 2020 report is about or what it says. I do not think that I can support either of these amendments at this stage. Mr Moore has moved to add that it is Liberal Party ideology. Mr Speaker, I have not read it, so I cannot support that. Perhaps we should adjourn this debate, Mr Speaker.

Mr Moore: No adjournment. Perhaps you had better leave before we vote.

MR OSBORNE: I do not mind voting. As for Ms McRae's amendment, I cannot support paragraph (a). I do not know what were the agreed outcomes of the 1993 Assembly's 2020 report, so how can I sensibly ask Mrs Carnell to go back and find out what it is? I think that is quite silly. I have read briefly through that same article that Mrs Carnell read from. There are some things in here which I think are quite relevant. There is one paragraph that I will quickly read. It says:

Canberra has teams competing in the national rugby competition where the Raiders are still formidable.

That is good to know. It continues:

Rugby now has teams in all the southern capitals. In 2007, after virtually 100 years of separation the rival codes of Rugby Union and League reunited as part of a global reconciliation.

I just hope that the rugby league world can do that by the year 2007. I do not think I will be too worried about rugby union.

Mr Moore: Read it in its context.

MR OSBORNE: Mr Moore asks me to read it in its context. Perhaps this can be read in its context:

The natural symbol of Canberra is now the King Parrot.

Let us go down a bit further, where it says:

There are places in the city where parrots can be fed by hand, including Parrot Place in Civic ...

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