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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4035 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

the conduct of public affairs in the ACT. Not only was it mean spirited, not only was it very badly advised, not only did it play loose with the truth in the most extraordinary way - not only were all those things true - but also it showed complete disregard for the capacity of people to understand the issues better by reading anything that he has to say. Mr Berry specialised, as he always does, in the hurling of mud. If the Labor Party spent half the time they spend on digging dirt on developing, for example, a jobs policy, then we might hear something productive from them. We might hear some advance in the position that the ACT finds itself in today.

It is not the responsibility of just the Government of the ACT to deal with the ACT's current economic problems. It is not the responsibility of just those on the treasury bench to formulate strategies to help the many Canberrans without jobs to find jobs. It is the responsibility of every person in this place, duly elected to represent the citizens of the ACT - every single last one of us. No-one is exempted from that process. Yet we see an opposition that attacks every revenue measure taken by the ACT Government, opposes every reduction in expenditure made by the Government, calls on us endlessly to increase expansion in a whole variety of areas and implies that if they were in government they would engage in those increases in expenditure. To see them engage in that activity, yet not contribute a single new concept for creating wealth, producing development and growth and stimulating the creation of jobs, is reprehensible in the extreme.

My advice to the Opposition is very simple. Spend less time digging dirt and more time on the issues that matter. The issues that matter are jobs and the creation of jobs in this community. What is the policy of the Australian Labor Party in the ACT on the creation of jobs? How would they do this? Is this not a fundamentally important issue that the citizens of this Territory are entitled to hear about prior to 21 February next year? Perhaps they will, but to hear about it in the last days of an election campaign or any time after the end of this year allows the electorate far too little time to assess properly the issues being raised. What are the strategies? What are the policies? Where are they going? What do they propose to do? We do not know. The Government does not know. The community of Canberra does not know. That is an utterly irresponsible approach.

Looking at this Assembly and its work over the last three years, who has been responsible for producing ideas, for putting forward policies, for developing approaches to meet Canberra's problems, for even simply introducing legislation designed to address these problems I have described or a range of other problems facing the community? Certainly, the Government falls within that category and, certainly, the crossbenches can claim to have assumed that role. Look at the Bills List. See how many Bills have been produced by the crossbenches and compare that number with the number of Bills produced by the Labor Opposition. If my memory serves me correctly - and I might be wrong - the Labor Opposition have introduced one Bill in the last two months, and that represents probably only the second or third Bill in this entire year produced by the Labor Opposition. Even that Bill, as we heard yesterday in the question Mr Moore asked Mr Wood, is in all likelihood going to have to be scrapped because it is so misconceived.

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