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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3943 ..

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Ms Horodny asked me a question in relation to a couple of big trees at Palmerston Primary. I have been advised by my department that no trees have been removed from Palmerston District Primary School. There are, however, two large trees on an adjacent oval, and some damaged branches have been removed in the last couple of days. The trees are still there. I understand that the branches were damaged by vandals. A similar event has also recently occurred at Ngunnawal Primary; but in both cases the trees are actually still standing. I am also advised that no trees have been removed from any government school in the Gungahlin district.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Speaker has received a letter from Mr Berry proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:

The wrong priorities of the Carnell Liberal Government.

MR BERRY (Leader of the Opposition) (4.37): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Carnell Liberal Government has built itself a stack of wrong priorities. This has meant that millions of dollars have not been spent on maintaining decent services in this city. Whether it be putting thousands of public servants out of work in a recession or wasting $500,000 on a re-election campaign, it is a collection of expenditures or cutbacks or wrong-headed ideas that Labor would not have committed itself to.

Let us have a look at some of the highlights. The first is the Liberals' job reduction scheme in the ACT Public Service in a recession. Fifty million dollars over three years is our claim. Over their term, according to our estimates, the Liberals will have spent $50m on putting ACT public servants out of work during a recession. In fact, the rate of redundancies has risen more over the past 12 months than at any other time since 1992. This is totally irresponsible and is contributing to the ACT's economic woes. It is a reason for the crisis of confidence.

Kate Carnell has joined John Howard as the public servant's worst nightmare. While John Howard has cut the number of Commonwealth public servants in Canberra by 7.8 per cent, Kate Carnell has matched him. Since she was elected, she has cut the ACT government service by 7.6 per cent. In fact, Kate Carnell has made greater cuts in the Public Service than has any other State or Territory government - and you wonder why the ACT economy is in recession. The Chief Minister now claims that she has spent only $20.8m from her central redundancy pool. How cute! Unlike the previous Labor Government, the Carnell Government now separates centrally-funded redundancies from agency-funded redundancies. The latest Estimates Committee report says:

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