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Hansard . . Page.. 489 ..

We have a Liberal government which ought to be philosophically committed to building business confidence. But they are not. Since the Liberals have been elected there has been no sign of anything from this Government which would engender business confidence. I think it has shown up clearly in that one set of figures. The ANZ Bank figures show the plummeting of job opportunities in the ACT and the plummeting of business confidence. That is the natural constituency of the Liberal Party; but many of them would be shaking, for good reason.

Mr Humphries: Shaking with mirth.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries interjects, “Shaking with mirth”. Who would be laughing at an 18 per cent fall in job opportunities? Mr Humphries may well laugh at that; but I do not think any of his business constituents would, because they want to get on with the job. What they want to have in front of them is a government with strong leadership qualities, a government that is prepared to do - - -

Mr Kaine: They have it.

Mr Hird: That is what they have.

MR BERRY: They want a government that does not make mistake after mistake, because that is what has occurred in this case. Just look at the list of them that run along the beautiful foreshores of the lake - Acton Peninsula, Kingston, and every time Mrs Carnell goes anywhere near the Federal Government they snow her and she walks away with less than nothing. That, in fact, is what will occur. The $15m worth of assistance that has been given to the Territory is quite likely to be soaked up by the commitments to clear up the sites which she has given control over to the Commonwealth.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

MR BERRY: This matter of public importance is merely a joke.

MR HIRD (4.31): The guru, the guru of business, has never been in, or has never had any involvement with, business, as I understand it; and he knows it all! He knows the magic and how business is going to operate. He has never been in business. Mr Speaker, I have in front of me the three wise monkeys. What we have had for 4½ years is the four non-productive monkeys.

MR SPEAKER: You certainly cannot incorporate them in Hansard.

MR HIRD: I will not try to, Mr Speaker; but let us go through this gobbledegook nonsense that we have just heard from Mr Berry and his colleague the former Chief Minister. The best Treasurer we have had so far is my colleague Mr Kaine. There is no doubt about that, because the record shows that we were in the black.

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