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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2252 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

criticism of that? Of course there was criticism of that. Mrs Carnell must not have heard the criticism of the $6m that she has poured into the Acton site so that she can prepare it to give it to the Commonwealth. Mrs Carnell must not have heard all of those things. We are starting to get closer to $200m, Mrs Carnell.

Mr Stefaniak: No, you are up to only about $9m.

MR BERRY: You forgot about the $110m credibility gap, Mr Stefaniak. You cannot add up either. The fact of the matter is that there has been constant criticism levelled at the way that you have managed the economy in the Territory. Constant criticism has been levelled at you over your handling of the budget, your magic three-year budget - the magic pudding. Mr Speaker, it is all over the place.

What of the small change? Mrs Carnell has had enough small change to build us a little futsal stadium, an outdoor stadium for an indoor game. It is probably the best one in Australia. Each time it has been used the outdoor stadium where you play indoor games has been empty. Mr Speaker, what a joke!

Mr Whitecross: Where did they hold the national championships? Indoors?

MR BERRY: They held the national championships indoors. Why did they not go out of doors? Because it is an indoor game. You usually play indoor games indoors, and outdoor games on an outdoor futsal stadium. But there is no such thing as outdoor futsal because "futsal" means indoor football. So, Mr Speaker, what a joke this Chief Minister is.

She stood up there, swaggering all over the place, saying that nobody has criticised her management of the Territory's economy. What a joke! That was just a brief list of the mistakes that this Chief Minister has made and we are already halfway to her operating loss. This is the Chief Minister who swaggers about, in all her self-importance, saying what a great job she has done, and the record shows something enormously different. Mr Speaker, this budget is another smoke and mirrors budget, the same as the others. It is about as believable as the three-year budget. It is ideologically unsound. It is contrary to the future interests of the Australian Capital Territory. Let us have a look at the comments about superannuation, Mr Speaker. Those opposite made great play of the issue of superannuation, lamenting the future situation that the Territory would find itself in. Well, they have contributed to it by a factor. Labor, in office, put four times as much into its budget as did Mrs Carnell in respect of superannuation.

Mrs Carnell brags that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I think she has missed the point. The fact of the matter, Mr Speaker, is that this budget is no better than the three-year budget and it does not solve the Territory's problems. Mrs Carnell came into this place and said that nobody else has had any ideas. She did not want to talk about our ideas. She did not want to talk about our criticisms of her mismanagement and overexpenditure throughout the budget. Future generations will have to pay for the waste that this Chief Minister has imposed on ACT budgets in the past and has built into structures. It is not supportable.

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