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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2148 ..

Mr Moore: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Not only was Mr Stanhope quite incorrect and lying about what he was saying about me before, but also he is now not relevant to the topic at hand.

Mr Berry: You can withdraw that.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, the word "lie" was used. Withdraw it please, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, I did call Mr Stanhope a big liar, but it's true. He is not a big liar, so I withdraw the word.

MR SPEAKER: It is withdrawn.

MR STANHOPE: You don't like it do you, Michael. You remind me of Dad's Army and the bloke who said they don't like that cold steel. It is exactly the same. You like to dish it out but you can't take any of it. Your behaviour is absolutely pathetic. It's pathetic the way you behave.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Get back to the topic, please.

MR STANHOPE: The point needs to be made, Mr Speaker. Mr Moore jumped up in this place and complained about the fact that I digressed into another portfolio area of his, namely the housing contract, when he digressed into hospital beds and said how wonderful it was now that we did not have the 1,000 hospital beds that the Liberals have promised. He can digress into the health portfolio but I can't mention the fact that we have, as a result of Mr Moore's actions, a group of people in this place who are facing redundancy.

Mr Smyth: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. If the Leader of the Opposition is not acquainted with the standing orders and does not know how to use them properly, that is no justification for him straying from the topic. It is a matter of relevance here and he should be addressing the free bus system, which of course will benefit 16,000 students in the ACT.

MR SPEAKER: Gentlemen, I suggest that we all come back to the legislation that is before us.

MR STANHOPE: Thank you. I am happy to do that, but I think the point needs to be well made about the missed opportunities and the priorities of this government. That is what we are debating here. We are debating a priority of this government, a vote-buying exercise, namely, the provision of free buses to a select group of students. That is a priority over and above the investment of an additional $27 million into the education system to achieve direct educational outcomes for all Canberrans .

We are talking about a priority of this government, a misplaced priority, a wrong priority, a missed opportunity, just as we are talking about a misplaced priority in relation to this government's attitudes to Totalcare. It has an ideological determination to undermine Totalcare. As a result of the ideological position that it has adopted in relation to Totalcare, it is determined to take as much work as it can from Totalcare to ensure that eventually it is an empty shell and can be flogged off. We know that that is what it is all

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