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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 164 ..
MR SMYTH (continuing):
It is curious that Mr Stanhope's condemnation lies simply with the Prime Minister. There is not a word in there about Mr Beattie and the words that he has said about Canberra. Perhaps next private members day we will have another motion from Mr Stanhope condemning Mr Beattie for the words that he said about Canberra, but I doubt it. That is something we never get from the Labor Party in this place. They will never attack their own. They will never say that Mr Beattie is wrong, that Canberra is a fine place; but they are willing to stick the boot into Mr Howard at any opportunity.
Mr Stanhope went on to say that solidarity was more important than Canberra to the Liberals. That is not true, it is just not true, and the record of the last five years, the record that the first Carnell Government and now the second Carnell Government have put in place, is that where appropriate we have stood up on every occasion for Canberra and we have attacked governments of both persuasions, Labor and Liberal. Mr Stanhope actually worked for a Labor government that took some 4,000 jobs out of Canberra, but I do not recall a motion in this place from the then Labor Government condemning the Federal Labor Government for what it was doing to Canberra in those years.
It is quite clear that this is just about petty politics. It is not about being constructive. Members of the Opposition are isolated and they are divided because they offer nothing. When you ask them what they stand for, they cannot tell you. They will never offer anything constructive because they have nothing to offer. I am not surprised that Mr Stanhope could not respond to Mr Kaine's assertion that he is a lover, not a fighter. What Mr Kaine said shows quite clearly that he would much rather get on with the job and be constructive than just be a knocker. All we have come to expect from the Labor Party is that they will knock anything that anybody would do to build up Canberra if it has the potential of keeping them out of government. That is all they are about. They do not care about Canberra because they have done nothing to improve it over the last five years.
Amendment (Mr Kaine's ) agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
That this Assembly calls on the Chief Minister to write on its behalf to the Premier of New South Wales, the Honourable Bob Carr, requesting that the Regional Forest Agreement for the South Coast:
(a) protects the 15 community reserve proposals developed by the South East Forest Alliance;
(b) supports the development of a local wood products industry based on plantation forests; and
(c) excludes woodchipping of non-plantation forests.
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, I seek leave to speak again.
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