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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2871 ..

MR WHITECROSS: I will be around for longer than you, brother. Madam Deputy Speaker, the point I was making was a simple one. Mr Kaine knows that there is nothing logical about this policy. Mr Kaine knows that there is nothing coordinated about this policy. It is not his policy, because he wanted a logical policy and he wanted a coordinated policy. He is the one, after all, who only a month before got up in this parliament and argued the case for a Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation which would provide a coordinated approach to the promotion of Canberra; not the narrow approach that he talked about in his prepared speech written for him by the Chief Minister's office, or whoever it was, but a broad approach.

I think there would be some very heartbroken people on the board of the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation if they heard what Mr Kaine just said about how the role of the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation is narrowly focused on tourism promotion. Never mind all those other things about cultural and sporting things; they are not the role of the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation anymore. Never mind promoting the broad strengths of Canberra. That is not the role of the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation anymore. It is only tourism now - tourism, tourism, tourism - according to Mr Kaine's prepared speech. But that is not what he said in April. That is not what he said in Cabinet before he got rolled.

Mr Kaine knows as well as everybody else that this is an illogical policy, an uncoordinated policy, a policy imposed on him by a Chief Minister who was more keen on setting up a slush fund in another part of the bureaucracy than on having a coordinated approach to the promotion of Canberra. Mr Kaine should be grateful. Mr Corbell is doing you a favour, Mr Kaine. Mr Corbell, in all his youthful exuberance and generosity of spirit that comes with not having been knocked around as much in politics as some of us have been, has come in here with only one goal in mind, Mr Kaine, and that is helping out a Minister who he can see was trying to do the right thing but was rumbled by his Chief Minister.

I think Mr Corbell should be praised for having the courtesy and the generosity of spirit to come into this place and try to help you out, Mr Kaine. Let it not be said anymore that the Labor Party does not adopt a bipartisan approach to helping out Ministers on the other side who need a bit of extra assistance because they have had a bit of trouble in getting something they wanted through Cabinet. Mr Corbell, for one, stands ready to help you out, Minister, when you are having a bit of trouble. I hope that other members in this place will join with Mr Corbell in helping to overcome the Minister's obvious problems in persuading his Cabinet colleagues of the merit of this proposal.

There is only one logical way to do this, and that is to have all the funds which are devoted to the promotion of Canberra administered by the same organisation, and that is the Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation. It is fully equipped to go into partnership with the private sector, and fully equipped to do the job which the Government wants done and which we want done. Madam Deputy Speaker, I urge the Minister to put aside Cabinet solidarity and to recognise the merits of Mr Corbell's motion and vote for it.

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