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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2486 ..

Mr Corbell: A closet apologist.

MR SPEAKER: Would you please be quiet, Mr Corbell.

MRS CARNELL: Absolutely not. What we are saying, Mr Speaker, is, "Let us not just come up with a stunt in this place 18 months after the event. Let us come up with a position that might actually make a difference".

Mrs Littlewood: Achieve something.

MRS CARNELL: As Mrs Littlewood says, achieve something. That really has to be the issue here. If there is any political grandstanding going on here, it has to be by those opposite. It was 18 months ago that John Howard made the decision not to have Canberra as his primary place of residence. It was six months ago that Mrs Littlewood was out there with her petition, Mr Speaker. What is the Opposition actually adding to the debate here?

Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I thought that this debate was about why the Prime Minister was not living in the Lodge. The Chief Minister seems to be spending a lot of her time attacking the Opposition, but the point of this motion is to attack the Prime Minister. If she is uncomfortable with that, perhaps she should sit down.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. You will have your chance to participate in the debate. In the meantime, the Chief Minister has the floor.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, we will attack the Prime Minister's decision not to live in Canberra every day of the week, and we have done so. The question I am putting on the record here is: Why, 18 months after the event, does the Opposition finally decide that it is going to do something about this? Mr Moore has been out there, we have been out there, the business community has been - - -

Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker - - -

MRS CARNELL: There is no point of order, Mr Speaker.

Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, perhaps you should listen to me before you take the Chief Minister's advice. I think Mrs Carnell is deliberately misleading the Assembly on this point. If she checks the Hansard records, she will find that the Labor Party has consistently made reference to the failure of the Prime Minister to live in the Lodge.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Corbell. You can join the debate later.

MRS CARNELL: I ask Mr Corbell to withdraw the remark that I was misleading the Assembly.

Mr Berry: You have done before.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

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