Page 3018 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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cutting the grass, on the other. We may be a young national capital with a fledgling government, but we can do better.
Mr Speaker, to assert, as has been asserted, that a minority Labor government of five alone can ensure that Canberra remains Canberra is absolutely absurd. Members of the new majority government live here, too, and we aspire to maintain and enhance all that is good about Canberra, and we will do it.
Mr Wood spoke about a government that shares. I simply ask him: with whom? This Government did not share much with Mr Duby, who supported them for six months and to whom they made specific undertakings. They shared nothing with the members of the opposition. They did not even share their knowledge in question time. They did not share much with the community out there either, through their spurious, so-called consultative process.
Mr Wood also referred to our taking government after all the hard work has been done. I am not looking to two and a half years of an easy time. I am quite sure that there is still two and a half years of hard work to go before the life of this Assembly expires. If Mr Wood wants to join us for the easy ride, he is quite welcome to do so.
This Government, Mr Speaker, despite its rhetoric, has not performed. We have had too much spurious consultation, too many promises broken, too many discussion papers and not enough action. Despite Mr Wood's applause of the Chief Minister's popularity, it is because of the Chief Minister's failure to manage, along with that of Mrs Grassby and Mr Berry, that this motion is being considered today. Mr Whalan, on the other hand, whose popularity was not so worthy of Mr Wood's applause, has been the Government's best performer, in my view.
Mr Speaker, it is a time for change, and a majority of members have spontaneously agreed to be the catalyst for change for the good of Canberra.
MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (4.12): Mr Speaker, I rise to speak against this self-seeking motion. The Labor Government promised the people of the ACT responsible government. We delivered. We promised consultation. We delivered. We promised social justice. We delivered. We promised a firm financial basis and a responsible budget. We delivered. Now that the Follett Government is popular with the people of Canberra, the power hungry groups opposite have decided to grab power before the people of the ACT forget about them completely. At the next election most of them will not even be here.
Mr Speaker, this Government has got the basics right and has put in place good, stable administration. The achievements in my portfolio are clear evidence of this. The Government has paid particular attention to the
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