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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 2876 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Once you start looking, there are plenty of bright aspects to this week's Turf Tragedy.

For instance, that futsal slab suddenly doesn't look like such a ridiculous waste of money after all, does it, and who among us would have imagined that anything could make the futsal slab look like a good idea?

Ha, ha!

MR SPEAKER: Excuse me, is this Laugh In or question time? Would you mind getting on with it!

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, on the dark side, another article draws attention to Mrs Carnell's machine and the nasty style that it has developed of bullying people, using the words "giving everyone amenable or threatenable a common script, and ensuring that they work to the line of spin which has been devised". Would the Chief Minister like to take the opportunity now to deny that she and her officials behave in that way?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I do not read the Canberra Times.

MR BERRY: I take it that the Chief Minister will not deny-

MR SPEAKER: No, you will take nothing at all; the Chief Minister has answered the question.

MR BERRY: I have taken it that way. Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: You may do as you like.

MR BERRY: Now that the Chief Minister has acknowledged that that is the way she behaves, how can she justify the threats, bullying and nasty tactics such as we have seen coming from her office? I will give one example: Capital Television was locked out of a press conference because it reported negatively on this government's incompetence on Bruce Stadium. Honestly, how can you justify this sort of behaviour to anyone? It is a nasty, dictatorial piece of work. How can you justify that as Chief Minister of the territory? Come on, try to justify it.

MR SPEAKER: That is a hypothetical question.

Mr Humphries: Mr Berry is using language which is unparliamentary. "Nasty" and "dictatorial" are going a little bit too far and I ask for him to withdraw.

MR SPEAKER: It is out of order.

Nursing

MR RUGENDYKE: Mr Speaker, my question through you is to the health minister, Mr Moore. Minister, I am aware that Access Economics has produced an appraisal of the 2000-01 ACT health budget. In relation to hospital services, the economist says:

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