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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3959 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

to attempt to attack this Government's record in financial management. Apart from the fact that the Chief Minister has been able to turn Mr Berry's alleged $422m waste into a $75m benefit - as detailed in today's Canberra Times - the simple fact is that Mr Berry and his mates in the Labor Party are hopeless financial managers. That is a fact that has been demonstrated time and again during the terms when they have been in office - terms in which Mr Berry has been a key player and certainly in the inner sanctum.

I would like to bring to the house's attention two glaring examples in recent years of Labor's bungled financial mismanagement which this Government has had to prop up - not by choice, but because we are locked into the bad deals made by Mr Berry's mates in the Labor Party. There was the Harcourt Hill land development project - a $75m joint venture agreement signed by the Labor Government in 1993. This Government has had to prop up this agreement with a $20m loan to keep it afloat. That should be fresh in Mr Berry's mind, because it came before this parliament for approval only last week. I notice that they are very quiet now, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Do not encourage them to be anything else.

MR HIRD: Then, of course, there was the Hospitality School, established in the old Hotel Kurrajong in 1994 by the Berry Labor Government, at a cost to ACT taxpayers of $11m.

Mr Moore: Come off it, Harold!

MR SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, I am just interjecting to make him feel comfortable.

MR HIRD: I feel at home, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Do not provoke them, Mr Hird.

MR HIRD: I will repeat that: At a cost to ACT taxpayers of $11m. That turned out to be yet another lemon, another Labor Party failure, which this Government, to the credit of the Chief Minister, had to prop up because of the bad deal - another $16m to keep it afloat. I could go on, Mr Speaker, about the Executive overspend when the former Chief Minister in the Labor Government overspent nearly half a million dollars; she just signed a cheque. I could go on and on. What prudent members of this community will be wondering, of course, Mr Speaker, is how Mr Berry arrived at the $422m waste claim. Obviously, he has not yet learnt that, to arrive at the real financial position, you simply subtract expenditure from revenue. Do not forget, sir, that when we came into office in 1995 the cupboard was bare and there were huge amounts owing. God help the citizens of Canberra, Mr Speaker, if we become saddled with this crew opposite after the election next year.

MR SPEAKER: The discussion is concluded, mercifully.

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