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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2396 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

to accept the board of inquiry's recommendations on this issue, while we continue discussions with the business community and the broader community about the future of the leasehold system, was not taken without political cost to the Government.

That is true. Ms McRae made the comment that there were members of the community that were very keen to see longer leases. Yes, there are a significant number in the community that would like that to happen. Even though Ms McRae attempted to suggest that Mr Humphries had somehow misled the Assembly, I think Minister Smith's letter shows categorically that that is not the case; that all Mr Humphries, Warwick Smith and, for that matter, I have suggested to the Federal Government is they might like to put in place their own election policy. I think that is actually a very good thing. In fact, by its very nature, that allows this Assembly to make that decision. That is what Mr Humphries has said the whole way through.

Mr Speaker, let us look at what Ms McRae has said. I will now quote from another one of those ABC radio interviews, this time with Sarah Gillman on 11 July 1997. Sarah Gillman said:

Isn't it enough to vote against it?

She meant, "If it comes up in the Assembly, why don't you, Ms McRae, just vote against it?". Roberta McRae said, and I think it is very important to listen to this:

Well, we won't be able to vote against it as such, because it's an amendment that's being proposed to the Federal Parliament, and that's why we're so disappointed with it, because it's clearly against the wishes of the Assembly ...

If anyone is misleading anybody, it is Ms McRae who is misleading the people of Canberra and members of this Assembly. Quite simply, Ms McRae was saying that somehow the Federal Government was going to introduce legislation that would force this Assembly into a particular position. That was not the case. Mr Humphries has made it clear that was not the case. The fact here is that Ms McRae got it wrong, not Mr Humphries. She got herself into a complete mess. I have to say that it does appear that she just does not understand this whole issue.

Mr Speaker, this is the new leader's first day here. To move the absolutely weakest no-confidence motion I have ever seen in this place - and I suspect we have all seen a few - really does not help.

Mr Berry: The weakest was the one you moved.

MRS CARNELL: That one actually succeeded, Mr Berry. That was when you got the boot as a Minister - the only person who has ever got the boot, I have to say. This motion must be a desperate stunt to give Ms McRae a little profile in the lead-up to an election or possibly to make people actually think she knows something about planning. Well, it would have been a very good idea, Mr Speaker, if she had actually

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