Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4265 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

that Canberrans have experienced over the last three years was a deliberate intention of your party's policies. Will you resign or apologise in the same way as you demanded of Senator Campbell?

Mr Humphries: It is a stupid question.

MRS CARNELL: It is a stupid question. It is very hard to work out why those opposite could not have read even the Evatt Foundation report, Mr Speaker. That report certainly had a lot of mistakes in it, but even it suggested that this was not a government that had embraced economic rationalism. Even the Evatt Foundation report made comments such as this:

... she has also campaigned for a national industry policy, converted her own government's planned redundancy payments into business incentives and created a rash of job and business development programs.

Mr Speaker, that comes not from an entity that is usually regarded as heavily on the side of the Liberal Party. It seems that even the left wing think-tank, the Evatt Foundation, understands that we have spent significant dollars - - -

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I wonder whether Mrs Carnell - - -

MRS CARNELL: I would be embarrassed too.

Mr Berry: No, no; I wonder whether Mrs Carnell will get to the subject of the question. I do not recall that the question focused once upon the Evatt Foundation. It really focused on other things which ought to have been pretty clear - - -

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the question was - - -

MR SPEAKER: I am sure you are coming back to it, Chief Minister. It was relevance, was it not?

Mr Berry: No.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, Mr Whitecross, as I understood it, quite clearly was saying that somehow we had wrecked the economy and had caused the sort of recession that happened in Canberra last year. I was quoting the Evatt Foundation to show that even the Evatt Foundation sees that we have created a rash of job and business development programs here in the ACT. It said that the Liberals have also introduced a range of progressive social policies, and the Government is also notable for its level of community consultation and commitment to the environment. I would agree with those things, but I would not agree with other bits in there.

Mr Speaker, I come back to the issue here. Nobody on this side of the house believes that the approach the Federal Government has taken has been acceptable in the ACT, but we do believe strongly that it is essential that the ACT ends up with a more diversified business base and gets away from being a government town. In that speech I spoke about

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .