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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3945 ..

Mr Humphries: He did. He invited me to, just then. I distinctly heard him. I think Mr Hird heard him as well, and so did Mrs Littlewood, I am sure.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Sit down, Mr Humphries.

Mr Humphries: All right, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker.

MR BERRY: Prove your claim. Too many jobs lost, too many millions spent in a recession - that is the position that you have created here in the ACT.

Now let us talk about Mr Humphries for a moment and about the self-publicity stunt on World Environment Day - $8,000 worth. Gary Humphries's self-publicity stunt on World Environment Day, a full-page newspaper advertisement with the smiling Minister's photo, would have an estimated cost of around $8,000, including advertising fees, artwork, et cetera. If you dispute the numbers, give us the real numbers. He spent $8,000 - it was probably more than that - on a little self-publicity stunt. It must be remembered that this is the same person who, when in his honest phase, promised before the last election to introduce legislation to ban taxpayer-funded advertising featuring politicians. Where have you been? Where is the legislation, Mr Humphries?

In 1995, the Carnell Government waived $10.8m of stamp duty for CRA Ltd so that it could restructure the company. The Liberals admitted at the time that the ACT gained no financial or economic benefit from this gift to CRA. What a waste - $10m in revenue which could have been used for providing services over the past three years!

Escalating health costs amount to an extra $80m over the term of the Government. Before the last election, Kate Carnell promised that she would save $30m from the ACT health system. Instead, health costs have risen by $80m. Have a look at your own budget papers. What you people are not doing is looking at your own budget papers. Health costs have risen by $80m over her term of government. Mrs Carnell cannot respond to this claim. The only response she made yesterday was that she came in under budget this year. That is easy, if you put enough in at the front. There is no claim to success at all. All Ministers, everybody, can come in under budget if you just keep increasing the budget. Let us not forget that, in 1996-97, health costs were $42.8m extra and 800 fewer patients were treated at the Canberra Hospital. Where are you people coming from when you go out there bragging about your performance in the health system? In 1995-96, health costs increased by $22.83m; in 1996-97, they increased by $42.8m; and in 1997-98 they increased again by $14.6m. This adds up to $80.23m in my book. All of these figures come from the Government's own budget papers and the Treasurer's statements.

A promised saving of $24m in the sale and lease-back of the ACT fleet has turned into a $30m-plus cost to the taxpayer. Kate Carnell promised that the sale and lease-back of the ACT fleet would save the taxpayer $24m. Now, with contracts signed and sealed, the Auditor-General has found that the deal will cost the taxpayer up to $30m. This is typical of this Chief Minister. Instead of accepting an auditor's report on the chin, she argues it out with the auditor.

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