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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 920 ..

Mr Humphries: That is absolute nonsense. That is rhetoric and garbage.

MR STANHOPE: It is rhetoric and garbage that this Government could go to the last election with a promise to build a pool for the people of Belconnen and, three months later, trash - - -

Mr Humphries: The competition policy stopped it. You signed that policy; we did not.

MR STANHOPE: It was trashed on the basis of a report from bureaucrats within the Chief - - -

Mr Humphries: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I take a point of order. The Belconnen pool proposal has not been trashed. Mr Stanhope should get his facts straight.

Mr Berry: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that is not a point of order. He is entering the debate.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order. The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. There is no substance to the point of order raised by the leader of the house. If you rise again, Mr Berry, having been cautioned by the Chair once and knowing very well that the Chair can only answer - - -

Mr Kaine: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are not threatening a member of this house, are you?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, I am not threatening him; I am reminding him.

Mr Kaine: You are not attempting to coerce a member of this place, are you?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Kaine, resume your seat.

MR STANHOPE: It is instructive that we look at the history of the Belconnen pool matter because it is the shining example of what has gone wrong. It is the shining example of where this Government's systems simply do not work. It is an example of where this Government has simply refused to engage in the processes which this Assembly has directed be utilised in determining how the competition principles should apply to this community.

One of the instructive things about this Government's attitude to these issues is the statement of the Chief Minister on ABC radio on 8 May that she had deliberately created the Competitive Neutrality Complaints Unit at arm's length, that it was an organisation that she had gone out of her way to ensure was not accountable to her. That is what the Chief Minister claimed on the ABC on 8 May.

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