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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2562 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

If we had had another year left in the term, I am not sure that Labor would have sustained that. I think it would have been overturned again and we would have had some other chaotic arrangement in place. Maybe even Dennis Stevenson would have been Chief Minister.

Mr Kaine: I offered to form an alliance with the Labor Party, remember?

MR BERRY: On reflection on the damage that was done to the Territory's standing, I think it might have been a sensible thing to do. In the very early stages of that, the Labor Party members sat down and had a think about what had to be put into the structure. We came to the view that, whatever the case, there had to be an alternative government. It was absolutely necessary; otherwise, the contest of ideas could not proceed with any substance, in our view. I think we were right to form that view. We persisted with it, we discussed it with other people, and eventually it became the will of the Assembly.

The Liberals occupied the Opposition position for some time, much to the chagrin of the then Residents Rally, because they felt that they ought to have it. Was the Residents Rally an alternative government? No, it was not. It was not within a bull's roar of being an alternative government.

Mr Osborne: And you are?

MR BERRY: You should read the Hansard, Mr Osborne. It makes interesting reading. It was chaotic. There was also a system of executive deputies, who chaired committees. The committees made recommendations, which the Government ignored or took notice of. That added to the chaos, in my view. When we were in government there was one steady thing on the other side - that was the Opposition benches. When they were in government there was one steady thing on the other side of the chamber. We like to think that we provided a steady Opposition which kept the Government - - -

Mr Osborne: Ask Ms Follett and Mr Whitecross.

MR BERRY: No. Those were the facts that were in place at the time. It was a very early situation which had to be dealt with. I make no apology for being involved in the negotiations to set up an Opposition Leader. I think it was the right thing to do. It was traditional in many ways, but it was the right thing to do because it provided a steady Opposition to the Government when the Government was finding it difficult to operate, and I think it still does. Whatever the Greens say, we are the alternative government and we have to behave accordingly. It is all very easy for minority groups - Independents, Greens and so on - to come into this place and say that what the others are doing is wrong. That is the political thing. They would say that. And they would try to grab a vote or two out of the whole process.

I see people like Ms Tucker getting to their feet and complaining about the adversarial nature of politics. Ms Tucker, I recall, moved a vote of no confidence in the Chief Minister - that is pretty adversarial, I would think - and she pursued it with vigour, which she had a right to do. Had she succeeded, somebody else would have been sitting

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