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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 1576 ..

Amendment (by Ms Carnell ) agreed to:

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

MR SPEAKER: Pursuant to the resolution of the Assembly of today, 6 May 1999, I have been notified in writing of the nominations of Mr Cornwell, Mr Osborne and Mr Stanhope to the Select Committee on Government Contracts.

Motion (by Ms Carnell ) agreed to:

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.05): Mr Speaker, it is not often that I come into this place to make comments in the adjournment debate to start with and I rarely do so on the issue of leadership, so I hope members will pay attention to what I say tonight. For the Labor Party and its leader, Jon Stanhope, today was supposed to be their one big day of the year, the day when the Opposition, particularly its leader, would outline an alternative vision for the future of Canberra and show how he - or sometimes she - would deliver a responsible financial management package for the Territory.

Instead, today has been a shameful day for the Labor Party, particularly for Mr Stanhope. We have wasted a whole day debating a motion that should never have been introduced. Indeed, even after Mr Humphries spoke, Mr Stanhope could have withdrawn his motion when it became patently clear, I would hope, even to him that his motion did not have a leg to stand on. Instead, we have witnessed perhaps the greatest blunder from an opposition leader in my time in this place. As opposition leader, I certainly made some mistakes, but one thing that I quickly learnt was how to cut my losses. Mr Stanhope certainly did not do that today. Mr Speaker, you would have to say that he committed a tremendous blunder.

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