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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3167 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Does that make you feel good, Mrs Carnell? It certainly does not make the pensioners feel good. Vehicle registration fees have risen for pensioners. The Liberals have cut the pensioner concession on vehicle registration. Under Labor, pensioners received concessions on the registration of a vehicle, trailer and caravan. Under the Liberals, the concession has been cut to one item only.

Mrs Carnell: One car.

MR BERRY: One item only. Pensioners will now have to pay the same as everyone else for their trailer and caravan. To top this off, third-party premiums have also risen by 20 per cent. Mrs Carnell interjects, "One car". Before, they could get one car, one trailer, and one caravan; but under the Liberals they lose the concession. Is that something that demonstrates a government that cares about the services which go to our older community and that shows respect for the older people in our community? I think not, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. There are cuts to ACT libraries. Older Canberrans rely on their local library. Not only have mobile libraries been cut, but budget cuts to the ACT Library Service have seen purchasing fall and overdue fines increased.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the situation is very clear when you have a look at the record. John Howard introduced entry fees for nursing homes, John Howard imposed new income-tested daily fees for nursing homes on top of existing daily fees, John Howard increased prescription charges, John Howard cut spending on Australian Hearing Services, John Howard slashed spending on home and community services, John Howard changed deeming accounts, and Mrs Carnell solidly supported his economic policies. Mrs Carnell introduced the new debit tax on all bank withdrawals, hit pensioners with a rates hike, abolished the free dental scheme, abolished the free spectacles scheme, put up electricity, water and sewerage prices, put up vehicle registrations for pensioners and made cuts to ACT libraries. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Liberals should not even rise in this debate. They should be ashamed.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (5.20): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is very unfortunate that Mr Berry always feels a need to make comments in this house that may not strictly be the truth. The comment that I made about Mr Howard's economic policy is true. I do not believe we should spend money we do not have. The second part of that - - -

Mr Berry: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think Mrs Carnell imputed that I may have misled the house, and I would ask her to withdraw that.

MRS CARNELL: If there was any indication of that, of course I withdraw it. That is not what I said, and it is certainly not what I meant. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the second part of that sentence was, "but Mr Howard and I have very definite disagreements in areas of social policy", and we do. I think a number of the things the Howard Government has done in the social policy area are totally unacceptable. But, again, this side of the house does not believe that any government should run up a huge debt that we should leave to our children.

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