Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (4 November) . . Page.. 3560 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

relation to this tax. You should say to John Howard either, "I agree with it" or "I do not agree with it". Tell the people of the ACT where you stand. Otherwise they can rightly assume that you are a supporter of it. Your silence will be measured as support for the Prime Minister's approach to a goods and services tax, which we know is a regressive tax and which we know will affect low-income earners more than others.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I have been critical of the general approach that the Liberals have taken during COAG. Their general philosophical approach to dealing with issues which concern the community is, of course, well noted by the community.

Mrs Littlewood: The community well notes the Labor Party's overtime payments, too, by crikey!

MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Littlewood, this is the third time I have had to call you to order.

MR BERRY: I have mentioned some of those other issues which Mrs Carnell mentioned in her speech. Overall, I think it is fair to say, and I think it is well borne out by the facts, that Mrs Carnell has not represented the ACT well, and the ACT is the worse off for her representation of it at the COAG meetings.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (4.24), in reply: Madam Deputy Speaker, very briefly, is it not tragic - - -

MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Does nobody else wish to speak? You will be closing the debate.

MRS CARNELL: No-one else got up.

MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I was just checking.

MRS CARNELL: Is it not a tragedy that Mr Berry does not even know what happens at COAG? He does not even know what the Council of Australian Governments is for - what the entity is for. Mr Berry, if he knew anything - and he does not - would know that it is the Premiers Conference that looks at issues such as funding. He would also know that it is the Loan Council that looks at loans, not COAG at all. He has become totally confused. He does not know what he is talking about, which is not terribly surprising. But then he goes on to say that he believes that these agreements that I have signed have somehow not been in the best interests of the ACT. Madam Deputy Speaker, I did ask Mr Berry what agreements he was talking about, and the fact is that he did not know. This is just going straight off half-cocked.

To show just how untrue that is, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have here the compendium of national competition policy agreements for January 1997. Nothing has happened; there has been no agreement since then. With regard to electricity, agreements on the reform in the electricity industry, including the establishment of the national electricity market, were made at the following meetings - and there were some very early on: Special Premiers Conference, Brisbane, 1990; Special Premiers Conference, 30 July 1991; Special Premiers and Chief Ministers meeting, Adelaide, November 1991. But now we actually get to the

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .