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Mr De Domenico said that Australians purchased a bit over $1 billion worth of French products. If we can put a reasonable dint in that $1 billion, the message will be clear. Making a reasonable dint in that $1 billion range of French products starts with ordinary people. Ordinary people have already started to resist buying French products. In fact, my nine-year-old son recently refused to buy a croissant. Even though I pointed out to him that it was actually made in the bakery at Campbell, he said that he still would not have anything to do with it.

Mr Hird: What did he get instead, Michael?

MR MOORE: A cream bun. There is an amusing side to this. I think we need to keep it in perspective. This motion allows us to do something quite significant. There is no doubt that contracts that are managed by the ACT Government, not least those for the purchase of buses, are quite significant and involve quite significant sums of money. As Mr Berry pointed out, the rolling stock for Renault-Mack buses could be replaced by rolling stock for other buses that would do the job just as efficiently.

The first thing that we deal with in this motion is the list of products. The second part of the motion deals with the products which are manufactured or supplied by French manufacturers or suppliers or are produced in France. If you wanted to take a narrow reading of that you could say that “suppliers” includes anybody in Australia who supplies the French with goods that then come back to us. I think that is an extraordinarily narrow reading of the wording of the motion. The motion is worded adequately. I believe that it gives you a reasonable amount of freedom but at the same time sends a very clear message from this Assembly to the Government that it is our wish that we resist buying French products. The reason behind it is twofold: First, the environmental vandalism by the French and, second but much worse, their role in reversing the direction of the nuclear arms race. That is what the issue is about. On that I believe we are all agreed.

We must ask ourselves where we are prepared to stand. Do we do everything we can unless it is going to cost us some money or affect our business, or do we say, “Even if there is some money attached to it we are going to make a principled stand.”? It is a difficult decision to make. It is not black and white.

Mrs Carnell: Take the money out of education.

MR MOORE: The interjection from the Chief Minister is not worth responding to.

Mrs Carnell: Is the answer yes?

MR MOORE: The interjection from the Chief Minister now has been reinforced, so it is worth responding to. Should we take the money out of education? No. In fact, we will have to come back and look at that education budget. The more I look at it, the more I think I see some fancy accounting. We may have to revisit it.

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