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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4264 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! If there are any more interjections, I would remind Mr Berry that the next suspension is for two days.

MRS CARNELL: Thank you. Mr Speaker, I come back to the comments that I made. Yes, I believe that a transition to a more diversified business base is essential. Rosemary Follett believed that in the last Assembly, a long time before the Howard Government was elected. I think almost everyone, except those opposite obviously, has understood that Federal governments have been downsizing for a long time. We all wanted to get to a stage, apart from those opposite - - -

Mr Corbell: That is not what John Howard said before the last election.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, you are going very close to being warned.

Mr Corbell: It is the first time.

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, you did not even call for order.

Mr Wood: Come on! This is outrageous. Why don't you just close the place down?

Mr Corbell: Go to the cricket.

Ms McRae: Show us in which parliament interjections are not allowed.

MR SPEAKER: Do you wish to finish, Chief Minister, or would you like to sit down if they do not want to listen?

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I was letting those opposite have a little bit of a chat among themselves.

I believe, as I have said before, that anybody who does not believe that that transition to a more diversified business base, to a more diversified job culture, is essential for this city is simply kidding themselves. It shows again, Mr Speaker, that Mr Berry has absolutely no idea of where he would take this city if, as the polls would show, he is elected as Chief Minister next year. In fact, it would appear that the only thing Mr Berry knows how to do is spend the cash-in-bank part of a balance sheet that has already been spent. The last time I checked you could not spend the same dollar twice.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, my question without notice is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, last Monday you were demanding the resignation of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Federal Treasurer, Senator Ian Campbell, for describing Canberra's recession as a fantastic achievement and in so doing letting the cat out of the bag about what your party's intentions are for Canberra. Yet, at the end of the week, at the Property Council conference on Friday, you described the recession in Canberra as "the transition that we had to have". You confirmed that the economic pain and suffering

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