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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3617 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

"To this end, I will not be supporting Mr Moore's euthanasia bill expected to be introduced tomorrow. It is a complex change to our criminal system and will result in an expensive and lengthy High Court challenge. The fight for euthanasia must now shift to the States.

"Labor will be working to redirect the attentions of the ACT Assembly onto the more important issues facing the Territory - building the economy, creating jobs, giving our children high quality education, and maintaining the quality of life that we have enjoyed in Canberra.

If you have looked at my press releases and my public statements to this point, you would certainly know that. It may be that Mrs Carnell is upset at my position in relation to the heroin trial and my pointing out that her constant focus on the heroin trial has given the public appearance that she has abandoned other matters. That is the public impression anybody would get from listening to the debate about heroin and other drug use here in the ACT.

The constant message we have heard from Mrs Carnell is that we must have a heroin trial. I have highlighted the inadequacies of the Government's approach on that in the past and I will continue to do so. It is an important issue, along with many other issues in the Territory, that has to be addressed. It has been inadequately addressed in the past. For Mrs Carnell to say that my policies should warrant my inclusion with - - -

Mrs Carnell: Are narrow and incomplete.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says, "Your policies are narrow and incomplete". Our policies are very clear. Labor said that if there was support for a heroin trial nationally we would support it too. We have been very clear from the outset. Howard - Mrs Carnell's preferred Prime Minister - took away any opportunity to have a trial. Why lie in the gutter bleeding about it? It is over and done with. Nothing more can be done until the mood changes, and the mood will change, I suspect, when we get a more progressive Prime Minister.

I was critical of the way Mrs Carnell handled this, because I think she set the debate back 10 years. She behaved like a hysterical crusader on the issue and frightened the horses. She was more interested in the public brawl over the issue than she was in negotiating the matter. I said before that you handled it badly. I think you did, and I think you can take some of the responsibility for what went wrong in relation to the heroin trial. The way you managed it was appalling. Fancy not even talking to your preferred Prime Minister and getting his position clear in your head before you ended up in the final negotiations. Fancy not even having a Cabinet decision or a party room decision. I would be happy for you to say that he agreed with you in the first place and then changed his mind.

Mrs Carnell: His Minister did.

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