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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 1090 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, there is this final comment that I would like to draw to the Assembly's attention in dealing with the hypocrisy that is coming from that side of the house, particularly in relation to Mr Moore. In the Canberra Times again, on 7 May, he was reported as follows:

... warned it was a temporary solution which would provide respite for one year "but masks the underlying failure of her Government to manage a genuinely balanced Budget".

What was Mr Moore referring to? He was referring to borrowing the money from ACTEW. The same thing has happened this year, Mr Speaker, in requiring ACTEW to buy the streetlighting. He is condemned by the words from his own mouth. I notice the silence on the Government side of the chamber. They know what Mr Moore said last year and they know what he is saying this year. They know that it just does not match up. The wonderful, selective approach of Mr Moore really does stink a little bit when you look at what he said last year.

Mr Speaker, there are some other issues which I want to address in the budget debate this evening along with the obviously hypocritical comments of Mr Moore. Maybe being a Minister has gone to Mr Moore's head. The other comments I want to address, Mr Speaker, are in relation to the sort of approach that the Government takes to this budget. The real concern that I have relates to how this Government presented itself to the people less than five months ago and how it is dealing with issues now. Less than five months ago you would have thought from what the Government had said that the pain was over; that the issues have been fundamentally dealt with and things are looking up; that the pain is over and we are going to be able to address the real concerns that our community has in areas like youth services and jobs. Mr Speaker, as my colleague and leader, Mr Stanhope, said earlier this afternoon, what an enormous misleading attempt that was by the Liberal Party. It was misleading the people of Canberra. Mr Humphries giggles away there because he knows that he has pulled a swiftie on the people of Canberra when it comes to issues relating to integrity in government.

Mr Speaker, there are some issues that I could quite easily address to make this point. The one of most relevance for us this week is milk, Canberra Milk and the future of Canberra Milk. You would never have thought five months ago that all those vendors and all those kids who run for those vendors had any problems at all with the future tenure of their jobs. You would have thought from the way this Government behaved less than five months ago that those people who run vending businesses for Canberra Milk and the young people that they employ would have their jobs secure. Less than five months later this Government has basically said, "Sorry, but you are probably not going to have a job in a little while". What sort of presentation is that from this Government? They do not like addressing these issues before the election; but afterwards, out they come, and they say, "Oh dear, I am very sorry. Your jobs are not secure anymore".

The next issue I want to address is the issue of youth centres. We had a motion in this place yesterday in relation to youth centres. I am not going to reflect on the decision of the Assembly then. What I am going to say is that I continue to believe, and this side of the house continues to believe, that what occurred in relation to the funding for the Civic and Woden youth centres was an absolute disgrace, and it was a disgrace motivated

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