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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1232 ..

Debate resumed from 8 May 1997, on motion by Mrs Carnell:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR BERRY (10.32): The failure of the Carnell Government's third budget will be further exposed, I am sure, when the matter is subjected to the scrutiny of the Estimates Committee. In examining the Chief Minister's third budget, it is wise to think about the promises of the first and the way that it was proposed to be, in many ways, the world's first three-year budget for a government. It is wise to look at the lessons we have learnt from the first two years of the Carnell Government. The issue for us to consider is: Has Kate Carnell got the answers she promised? Of course not. Kate Carnell has made a lot of promises over the last three years; but, at the same time, she has not delivered. Kate Carnell has not delivered on her promises; but, more importantly, she has not delivered on the basic services that governments must deliver. We will all recall one of the broken promises in my own electorate, where Mr Stefaniak was responsible for the closure of a school which he promised would not close unless the community wanted it to close. The community said no, Mr Stefaniak closed it, and what did the Liberals say? They said, "We agree with Mr Stefaniak". This budget is part of what Mrs Carnell said when she first came to office would be a three-year budget. What a farce! What a hoax!

That the ACT is in recession now is not in question, and it is clear that Mrs Carnell has done little to ameliorate the effects of the economic downturn in the Australian Capital Territory. The Chief Minister likes to blame her preferred Prime Minister. Let us not forget that Mrs Carnell blames John Howard for most of the problems, in an attempt to divert attention from her own failings. She blames John Howard at every opportunity. John Howard, of course, was promoted by Mrs Carnell before he came to office. It is a bit rich now to blame John Howard for many of the problems that Mrs Carnell, by supporting him, wished on this Assembly. The economic indicators were in their downward spiral long before John Howard was elected. Whom do you think that has something to do with? Of course, it has something to do with Mrs Carnell. The ACT economy started its downward trend in March 1995, and Mrs Carnell in her first year did nothing to address the problems. In fact, she exacerbated them. I suppose it should be no surprise that she was not ready for the acceleration in the decline that occurred when John Howard and Peter Costello got their hands on the levers.

Who will forget Mrs Carnell talking down the ACT economy for months after she came to office? But the degree of failure is not just in the Chief Minister's failure to respond to the worsening economic climate. The added problem is that Mrs Carnell has not been able to manage the basic services. Mrs Carnell has driven Canberra's services down as well. She has interfered in services and bungled them. She has undermined the Public Service and the private sector with her meddling and has focused instead on silly peripheral issues such as futsal stadiums. You get a quick flash on the television and a picture in the paper if you open one of these sorts of things. Over $300,000 worth of

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