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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2877 ..

Mr Stanhope: It was a joke and you know it. I cannot believe how puerile this is. It is just puerile—absolute puerile garbage.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, please.

MR QUINLAN: In answer to the back end of the question, I intend, in the interim period, to continue the good work of Mr Corbell. I say one thing that I know of Mr Corbell, who has been very dedicated to his duties as Minister for Planning: I think that last week in this house he was fairly universally accepted as being a person of vision. He is not a person of limited scope. He will, when he returns to this portfolio, continue to develop. At no point in time will a claim be made that the system is perfect. There will be continued work. In the six weeks or so that Mr Corbell is likely to be away, I will be working on it; when he gets back, I can guarantee you that he will working on it.

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. How is it, Minister, that the government is still working on it—you are a long way from making it perfect—and that after three years, a mountain of glossy publications, and millions of dollars spent on setting up a new planning authority, it is still nowhere near getting it right?

MR QUINLAN: That is quite clearly an opinion that you would like to promulgate. I do not even know whether you believe it. But this is that time of the electoral cycle in which you have to say that, if it belongs to the government, it is rotten.

Mr Stanhope: You don’t believe anything. It’s true. We have seen that over 2½ years: somebody that stands for nothing and believes nothing. And that is what the electorate thinks as well. And we know it and you know it.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Quinlan has the floor.

Mrs Burke: Touchy, touchy.

Mr Pratt: Says the chief minister for inaction!

MR SPEAKER: Order! Members of the opposition.

MR QUINLAN: Let me assure this house that, while this government works on the planning process, it will be working on the planning process for all. While ever there are events—and every week there will be some issue where there are perceived winners and losers; people will have different opinions about what should happen—this government intends to build on the process it has built to ensure the protection of the rights of all.

You can run around and pick up an example here and say, “The system doesn’t work because so-and-so has been waiting this long.” And in another week, if a different constituent sat on you, you would be in here saying, “What’s the rush? You haven’t consulted enough.” One of the beauties of being in opposition is that you can have two bob each way—but can we keep the double standard to a minimum?

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