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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2859 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

Mr Humphries has been on his feet three times already, with extensions, and Mr Smyth has been up a couple of times. What we have seen today, I think, is a plan to replace substance with quantity, with noise. If anybody in this place is lazy and unimaginative, it is the opposition, which has descended effectively to the schoolyard chant mentality that if you say something often enough it might offend. Where is the substance for this lot? There is none and there has been no effective criticism.

Mr Smyth asked, "What is happening now?" It has been our unfortunate duty in the months that we have been in government to clean up lots of messes. That does take some effort. I can talk about a quarry that you were involved in-a disaster. I can talk about the car race. Not only did it go over budget, but the over-budget expenditure flowed into the next year, into the year of the election, the year beyond. I can talk about problems in the racing industry that should have been addressed early and have not, but are being now.

We talked earlier about a remand centre which is in a parlous state and for which nothing was being done in the mid-term; you just took the risk. We could talk about sorting out the nurses dispute. We could talk about the horrendous workload that has flowed on to the Minister for Health in relation to the disability inquiry and the state of disability services in this place. Mr Smyth touched upon tourism. Let me say that it has been quite necessary to build some bridges within the tourism industry and I think that we have come a long way in recent months in terms of effective communication, effective consultation and effective cooperation across the industry. It is like taking over a house from the previous occupants and needing to refurbish it because, God knows, it needed refurbishing and you have to do some very basic work before you go ahead and brighten it up.

Mr Smyth asked what we are doing for business. This government has set up the knowledge fund, which will encourage new business. This government budgeted and provided funds for the ICT centre of excellence, which will generate considerable business. This government has set aside half a million dollars over two years for a small business employment ready program, which, I have to say, has been welcomed by small business. This government included in its budget money for a medical school, the construction of which will assist the construction industry and the construction of which was not included in the previous budget.

In fact, I think that any objective assessment would have to say that this government has been very active in getting on with the job of governing this territory. We did not start in a very pretty place, but each minister has addressed the problems in his portfolio as well as put in place the new paths that are necessary. I am very proud of what has been achieved so far.

I have to confess that there are within the direct purview of this government some very untidy matters which we inherited and still need to clean up. But we will clean them up, we will put the territory in far better shape and we will, as we have done this time around, budget for all of the things that are necessary. I find it ironic that occasionally we get the barb from the other side of the house that we were left with a surplus. You can always provide a surplus if you do not count everything in the budget. Effectively, that was the case and that was what we interpreted.

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