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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 880 ..

MS REILLY: My question is to Mrs Carnell in her capacity as Chief Minister. Chief Minister, the Canberra Times reported on Saturday, 5 April, the details of an ACT Government submission to the Grants Commission which purported to analyse the impact of previous and current Commonwealth policies in relation to the ACT. On the same day it was reported in the Australian that the head of the Prime Minister's Department had demanded that the ACT Government remove graffiti from the bus stop outside his department and that this job was done under arc lights that night. Chief Minister, can you confirm that this is the case? How does the Chief Minister reconcile such blatant toadying to the head of the Prime Minister's Department with its own case against the Commonwealth?

MRS CARNELL: I have no idea whether the graffiti was removed under arc lights; I am sorry.

Mr Berry: Will you find out?

MRS CARNELL: I am sorry; I do not actually know every graffiti site that is cleaned.

Mr Kaine: I do not know, either.

MRS CARNELL: The Minister who is responsible for graffiti does not know, either.

MS REILLY: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. It would be good if the Chief Minister could find out. Will the Chief Minister ensure that future priorities for expenditure at the request of the Commonwealth are set up on a more strategic basis and not simply based on her chief executive's long-term employment interests?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, that question is totally unacceptable. One of the things I would like to use the time to talk about is how we do go about graffiti clean-up. I have to say that we do respond quite quickly to phone calls from the public - even the same day, quite often. In fact, the launch of the graffiti reduction strategy on - - -

Ms Reilly: Fantastic! You cannot get same day service, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: Is this service available to everybody?

MR SPEAKER: Order! I have noticed today that everybody is rather keen to interject. I would hate to have to warn somebody for constant interjections.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, since the launch of the graffiti reduction strategy on 15 August 1995, over 1,000 sites have been cleared of graffiti, 400 sites have been - - -

Mr Berry: How many under arc lights?

MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, I warn you.

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