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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3956 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

is going to give it back to us. How many of the resources of the Territory are going to be wasted on that, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker - all to disguise the fact that the Chief Minister has to borrow; all for the petty pride of the Chief Minister; so that she can get up in this place and say, "We have no borrowings."? But we all know that she has. She has fooled no-one; but she has wasted the taxpayers' money on these things.

Then we have the $50m on redundancies. Mrs Carnell said, "It was only $20m". According to the Estimates Committee report, it was $25m - nearly $26m - in one year. So much for telling the truth to this parliament, let alone anything else. It was $26m in one year, and in the previous two years they spent about another $20m on making people redundant. In an environment where we are in a recession and unemployment is going up, this Government is spending money on redundancies - putting people out of work. They cried crocodile tears about John Howard putting people out of work; but Mrs Carnell is doing it, and spending millions and millions of taxpayers' dollars doing so.

I do not have time to go into Mr Humphries's bizarre escapade where he spends taxpayers' money telling them how concerned he is with greenhouse gases and then he comes in here and says that he actually does not believe in the greenhouse effect. He is happy to tell everyone out there that he cares about the environment; but then he comes in here - he must have thought that he was in opposition for a minute - and tells us that he does not actually believe in the greenhouse effect.

Last but not least, we have all the money the Government spent on behalf of Mrs Carnell pursuing the big O - the Olympics. We are refurbishing Bruce Stadium so that we can host the Olympics. Now we are refurbishing the Phillip Oval to soften up the AFL, who cannot play at Bruce Stadium anymore. Then we are going to spend some money at Manuka to soften up the cricket people. Then we are spending $10m on hosting the Olympics, then $5m on ticket guarantees - all so that Mrs Carnell can put out some feel-happy press releases about what a great person she is. All this is based on the economic benefits of thousands and thousands of international visitors who, experience shows, will not come.

MR MOORE (5.22): The discussion of this matter of public importance raised by Mr Berry is so important that he has not been here, other than when he was actually speaking, to listen to it. It is a matter of such importance that he is not interested in what other people's perceptions are. It is a matter of such public importance that he raised the issue in the paper this morning, which was well ventilated. So, how important is it to look at the wrong priorities of the Carnell Liberal Government? I must say that there is a difference between me and Ms Tucker. I listened carefully to her speech on this issue when she talked about the problems of both Labor and Liberal. The difference between me and Ms Tucker is that she has not had to sit here through a Labor government. I have had to sit here through both Liberal and Labor governments; that is the difference. Having identified the difference, I must say that her insights, having not sat through a Labor government and having sat through only a Liberal government, are rather excellent. The choice is, if I can use the old cliche, between Tweedledum and Tweedle much dumber.

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