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We do not pretend that this task is going to be easy, but we do believe that it is important for us to start to grapple with that issue at the first opportunity. That is why we proposed an early decision on things like the corporatisation of bodies such as ACTEW and ACTION - an examination of the basis on which we provide services in the Territory, a need to make the decisions that will truly give us the capacity to say to the people of the Territory, “Yes, we have considered how to offer a long-term, secure financial outlook for the people in this Territory”. It was always the myth perpetuated by those opposite that they could achieve that by fiddling at the edges; that the things, as we inherited them from the Commonwealth, were quite satisfactory; that we needed to adjust a bit here; that a 2 per cent reduction every year for a few years would do the job. That kind of unthinking, at-the-margins adjustment to the way ACT did its business, I think, is thoroughly discredited and needs to be rejected in favour of a comprehensive approach towards planning our future. And that, I think, Mr Speaker, is very much what the paper by the Chief Minister was. It was a document planning and setting out the parameters of the planning of the ACT's future.

I want to address a few points made by Ms Horodny on behalf of the Greens. She raised some points about the necessity for us to make decisions in the framework of having an environmentally sustainable future for the Territory and having decisions which are taken in that context. I believe that that is a very important consideration. We are facing a number of important challenges in this area in the next three years. For example, we have a challenge, which has been there for some time, of course, but which is quite critical at the moment, concerning the way in which we plan the expansion of our city in the future - to what extent do we invade surrounding greenfields in the vicinity of Canberra; to what extent do we build up a higher density of city in the existing established areas of Canberra. Those are critical issues, the management of which will in many ways define our success as an Assembly over the next three years. I believe that it is important for us to acknowledge that we need to refine our system of planning and planning decisions to take into account that, in many key respects, the present system has lost the confidence of the people of Canberra. That is one of the issues that were addressed in the recent Assembly election. It is one of the issues that now have to be faced up to by all of us in this Assembly. I believe that the Government will have to take the lead in this area to define a better way of managing those critical questions of planning.

Mr Berry: You started out well with Kingston and Acton. Great job!

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sorry that Mr Berry does not understand how important it is that we work together on that process. This is a minority government, as he and we well know.

Mr Berry: Go down in your own sinking ship. Do not ask us to go with you.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is most unfortunate that Mr Berry takes that attitude of saying, “Do not ask us to help you out”. I am not asking Mr Berry to help me or any of my colleagues; I am asking Mr Berry to acknowledge that there is a lack of confidence by many citizens of this Territory in the way these things have been done in the past.

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