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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 870 ..

MR SPEAKER: But you cannot debate them.

MR BERRY: Mr Moore and Mrs Carnell and co. would have it that we started from right now.

Mr Smyth: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. You have ruled several times on the relevance of what Mr Berry is saying, and he is persistently and wilfully disregarding the authority of the chair. Under standing order 202, you should throw him from the house.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, I will be watching that, thank you.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, these matters of performance are relevant, because we are now embarking on a course where the Government will have a piece of legislation upon which it will take actions in accordance with a motion which was passed in this place. Surely performance in the past on other matters has something to do with that. Surely you can reflect on the poor performance of those opposite. Surely when we are making decisions about this we are entitled to reflect on the poor performance of those opposite.

It would be a travesty if people in this place were prohibited from talking about the appalling and dismal performance of this lot opposite, such as the illegal expenditure of funds. Here we are locking the Territory into what could be a financial disaster. We already have behind us the illegal expenditure of funds by this Chief Minister, the former Treasurer. This Cabinet, this sports Minister, this Urban Services Minister, this Health Minister, this Deputy Chief Minister, this Chief Minister - they were the ones who gave succour to the illegal expenditure and what became the Bruce Stadium fiasco.

One has to take those things into account when one is allowing a government to embark on a course with this sort of legislation. This Bill gives the mechanism for the Government to dispose of an important community asset. It gives the mechanism for the Government to affect forever the lives of people who work in that particular public institution. It gives this Government the mechanism to affect the future income to this Territory from this important public asset.

Mr Speaker, you cannot not mention the performance of this Government when you have to take those factors into consideration. It is impossible, and it would be unjust to require it. I know that those opposite would like us not to talk about their background and their performance in the past. So too would crossbench members, because they have now committed themselves to the embarrassment of giving these people their trust. I will not. I have seen the performance. It has been devastating for the community. It has left legacies for future generations to deal with.

Why would you give them the trust to implement this legislation? You never would. You could not. This is a serious piece of legislation which will possibly leave a scar on the economic landscape of the Territory such that we will despair about it for a long time to come. We are despairing of those other acts which I have mentioned earlier. We are despairing of, say, the hospital implosion. This Assembly failed to take action to cleanse us of the troublemakers on this issue.

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