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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2185 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Berry's proposal, effectively, is a test of the government's majority in getting its money bills passed, in getting this measure passed. I do not see anything particularly wrong with that. I do not see anything wrong with this approach in that regard.

Mr Smyth: You did four years ago.

MR CORBELL: Mr Smyth interjects. In government, my view would be that it would be incumbent on the government to convince the majority of members that it was an inappropriate course of action; not that they could not do it, but that it was an inappropriate course of action. That is not an unreasonable approach, in my mind. In terms of the purely procedural issues, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Mr Berry taking the course of action that he has taken.

In relation to the substance of the matter, I have listened to a lot of this debate and I have heard much said about how, from the government's perspective, the initiative is a tremendous one which will help people. I have heard the comments of other members and I have heard the comments of my colleagues. I am reminded of a comment by a former Prime Minister of Australia, Ben Chifley, in his very famous "light on the hill" speech to the New South Wales annual conference in June 1949. Chifley was talking about the Labor movement, but I think it is also applicable to this debate, if you will forgive me this indulgence, Mr Speaker. Chifley said:

Really, when you think about the government's initiative, it certainly is about putting sixpence into somebody's pocket, but is that bringing better standards of living, something better, to the great mass of citizens, in this case schoolchildren in the ACT? I would have to argue that it is not. As my colleague Mr Berry has pointed out, the benefit of this initiative to 75 per cent of all students attending government and non-government schools in the ACT is zero. Is that bringing happiness, is that bringing support, is that bringing something better for the great mass of people in the ACT, in this case the great mass of school students in the ACT? The answer has to be no. Therefore, it is not bringing something better to their families as well.

This initiative is simply an initiative designed to divide our community against itself and to appeal to that most basic of nerves, the hip pocket nerve, rather than aspiring for something better for the great majority of people in the city. As members of the Labor Party said last night in their speeches on the budget, it is a budget of lost opportunity, and this initiative is the lost opportunity of the budget. That is why the proposal put forward by Mr Berry is important. That is why we should be focusing on allowing the ACT community to judge this initiative when it comes to the election in October and, more importantly, why it is incumbent on the Labor Party to do everything possible to try to ensure that we have an initiative which truly does benefit the great majority of people who are involved in our education sector, not just one that benefits under a quarter of them.

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