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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1816 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

place to hide the fact that I am a strong advocate of the police and the AFP. Obviously, it is pleasing to see that the government does listen and apparently is a strong supporter of the police. I welcome the money in there for that.

Finally, regardless of whether it was due to good luck or good management, there has been an amazing turnaround, as I said earlier. I have been critical of this government at different stages; but when it comes to the bottom line, I think that we should pat them on the back for the job that they have done. The Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell, should be proud of the job that she has done in rescuing the territory from the mess of the early years, and I sincerely mean that, Mr Speaker.

It would be remiss of me not to congratulate Mick Lilley as well. He has had his ups and downs, especially recently, but I always found him to be a good bloke. I think that he has done a terrific job with the budget and I am pleased that he is able to leave his job with it completed.

MR RUGENDYKE (3.47): What a headline: "It's all or nothing, Carnell warns MLAs". The Chief Minister said that it was an all or nothing matter and her government would not allow the budget to be picked over line by line by the crossbenchers. A line or two need to be picked over, but I will come to that later. I wonder whether the Treasurer is thrilled that Mrs Carnell has thrown out such a challenge on his first budget? I wonder whether he is thrilled that the Chief Minister is playing fast and loose with his budget?

Mr Speaker, the government is correct when it says that a majority of members supported the shooting gallery legislation. I did not. I expect that the members who wanted a shooting gallery will pass this aspect of the budget. I will not support this aspect of the budget and the Assembly should know full well that, if the Labor Party gains government, I would not support a shooting gallery in its budget, either.

I must remind members that the Liberal Party gave its members a conscience vote when the shooting gallery issue was debated. My conscience tells me that I cannot support this facility, so I cannot endorse financing it. It is not just a matter of giving the government its budget. This line in the budget is about a fundamental principle. If you want to approve financing for it, you will have to go and talk to the members who fundamentally support it.

I am not going to allow the shooting gallery funding to sit on my conscience. I cannot desert my conscience for the sake of your budget. The shooting gallery is such a sensitive issue that the Liberal Party allowed a conscience vote. Michael Moore and Kate Carnell joined Jon Stanhope and the Labor Party to make it happen. If this is an all or nothing budget, you are going to need the Labor Party to get it passed.

The other aspect of the budget I have difficulty with is the slush fund for the health minister, Mr Moore. The question I need to ask myself is: If Mr Moore was still a true Independent on the crossbench, would he accept this method of funding from the government? I think not. If Mr Moore was a true democrat, I am sure that he would have no part of this madness. I ask the government to go away and allocate and itemise this money.

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