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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2221 ..

MS CARNELL: Mr Quinlan says, "As has always been the case." I agree it has always been the case. The point Ms Tucker made, though, is that this was getting significantly worse under this government. There is not one shred of evidence to indicate that that is the case. There is a lot of evidence to indicate that the difference between the rich and the poor in the ACT is the lowest in Australia and that Canberra is the middle-class ideal of Australia. That is something we should be extremely proud of.

That does not mean that there are not people who are doing it tough. There is no doubt that there are, which is the reason that this government has as a core theme in the budget the building of social capital. It focuses on targeting those people who are doing it tough and falling through the cracks-those people who need support in early education and those people who need health support and early intervention.

Yesterday Mr Berry made some comments about autism-I think Mr Stefaniak will back me up here-suggesting that, shock, horror, this government was going to downgrade staffing levels. We found out yesterday that that was not the case, but Mr Berry forgot to tell everybody that there were no autism units when they were in government. These have all been set up since we came to government. The number of them is higher in the ACT, but in percentage terms the ACT is doing significantly better than the Labor state that surrounds us, New South Wales.

Mr Stefaniak: In real terms and in actual numbers as well.

MS CARNELL: In actual numbers as well. There you are. I am sure that Mr Stefaniak will speak about this again. Mr Berry brought up a really good example about social capital in action. This government believe very strongly, and believed right from the beginning, that people with disabilities should have things like autism units for early intervention to help children with autism and hopefully reintegrate them in the school system over time but at least give them the best possible opportunities for education. That is a real example, and there are so many others.

Since we came to government in 1995, we have not just maintained education funding in real terms but have significantly exceeded that. Up until this year it was real terms plus $26 million. This year again it is real terms plus-

Mr Stefaniak: It is close to $40 million.

MS CARNELL: We are about $40 million above real terms now. That is pretty exciting stuff. Can I have a short extension of time, Mr Speaker?

MR SPEAKER: You can take a second period, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: I do not plan to take another period because we have an agreement that we will keep our speeches as brief as possible. (Extension of time granted.)

Mr Berry brought up issues with regard to the performance of the government. I think I have covered those, as I have Ms Tucker's comments. Mr Berry went on to talk about the downsizing of the ACT government. Yes, that is very true. Guess what happened under the previous Labor government. Huge amounts of taxpayers' money were spent on voluntary redundancies under the Follett government when Mr Berry was deputy.

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