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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4415 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I heard Ms McRae in silence. I would ask for the same privilege.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, this is the woman who says that there was no cooperation between these two governments on planning; yet the same woman, only three months ago, was accusing us of doing secret deals with the Federal Government about the leasehold system. You cannot win. Either we cannot work with these people or we are doing secret deals with them and making things happen. Which is it? Are we achieving things through secret deals or are we not working with them at all? It just does not make any sense, Mr Speaker. Obviously, those people opposite are looking - - -

Mr Whitecross: That is right. That is one of our problems. Your approach does not make any sense.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I again have to appeal for your intervention in this matter. I did hear Ms McRae in complete silence.

MR SPEAKER: Yes. I remind members that it might be a very good idea to leave, rather than risk being warned.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the reality is that this Opposition is running a very confused and very unclear line on this whole approach. There is a particular point about what is being said here which I think is worthy of some reflection by those who might listen to this debate. We have spent much time in the last two years since the election of the Federal Liberal Government making references to the various shortcomings of that Government. We have accused it of being insensitive to the needs of Canberra and of being unwilling to cooperate with other governments, particularly in the ACT. We have accused it of being negative, of being insensitive to the needs of Canberra public servants, of being unwilling to cooperate with the ACT, and of trying to slash legal aid funding to the ACT, et cetera. There is a long list of those things.

We have condemned the Federal Government on a number of occasions in the last two years in this place, sometimes with the support of this Liberal Government here because we have put Canberra's interests first; but, Mr Speaker, when it comes to saying that there has been a failure to agree or to reach a cooperative arrangement between the Federal Government and the ACT Government, we assume that this is the ACT Government's fault. The Federal Government has all these shortcomings, all these failings, all these inabilities to reach agreement with the ACT on a whole range of things, and we have condemned it many times; but when it comes to identifying who is the culprit for failing to reach agreement on a range of issues - I dispute that there is such a range of issues, but let us assume for a moment that there is - why is it entirely the ACT Government's fault? It does not make any sense. Why is it that the Federal Government has all these failings, but when we cannot reach agreement with them on these things it must be our fault?

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