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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3425 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

"There is no more money for additional public housing."Is it your recollection, minister for housing, that there was no money for housing in the budget?

Mr Wood: Kate won't allow that to be said.

MR STANHOPE: That's right. There is $10 million for a safety upgrade, to start with. The fact is that you never addressed safety issues in public housing.

Mr Wood: $16 million over two years.

MR STANHOPE: Just $16 million over two years. The leader opposite said, "No money."Falsehood No 2.

"Nurses still fuming."We claim to have solved the nurses dispute. Can anybody forget what relations within the Canberra Hospital were like when we took over 12 months ago? Are memories that short? Have you blotted out of your memory the mess you made at the Canberra Hospital, particularly your relationships with the nurses?

The people of Gungahlin can only cross their fingers. They are crossing their fingers that you will stop interfering in the construction of the Gungahlin Drive and that you will stop conniving with your federal colleagues to ensure that the road does not go ahead.

That is what they are hoping. They are hoping that you will show a little bit of support for them and that you will stop conniving in the stopping of that road. You have achieved your purpose now. You've got the NCA out there deciding, with Wilson Tuckey at the helm. Wilson Tuckey will now decide where the Gungahlin Drive extension goes.

The supporters of the dragway are still waiting. This is a classic example of a promise we did not make which all of a sudden has become a promise. I see the Canberra Times running the lie again today. A very good letter from Mr Quinlan a week or two ago made it quite clear that there was no promise. This is the promise we broke that we never made-a good sort of promise, that.

Mr Cornwell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: the 2001 ACT election commitments say, "We will limit ministers' answers to questions to five minutes."Is this another one of your successes, Chief Minister?

MR SPEAKER: It is not a point of order, and you know it is not.

MR STANHOPE: So we look forward to the Canberra Times addressing that note. If you tell a falsehood often enough, it becomes a truth. I do not know who it was that established that principle of public life, but I am looking to the Canberra Times to do something about it.

Whilst I am concentrating on the media, I will also comment on Chris Uhlmann's amazing little editorial this morning about how you measure the work of an assembly or parliament. Now the ABC is berating us about our work levels. It is not just the government; he is berating this place about its work levels, on that infallible measure of output and work-namely, the number of bills presented.

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