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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 1414 ..

Ms Carnell: You have not tabled the Estimates Committee report. Why?

MR BERRY: You have indicated where you are coming from and you have made sure that you oppose the motion. You put up all of the spurious arguments that one would expect. Mr Speaker, the request is already well known. The Government has indicated its position. I think, Mr Osborne, that your amendment suggests that you might be getting cold feet, but they are not cold enough yet. The only way to deal with this issue is to require the Government to do it and make sure that they adjust their priorities.

I am disappointed that Mr Moore is not down here talking about this. I would have thought that he would have some sympathy for the arts.

Mr Wood: Well, he has shown it in the past.

MR BERRY: I understand that he has shown it in the past. I hope he has not changed since he has become a Minister with independent aspirations. It is interesting to see somebody who is a Minister now aspiring to be an Independent. The sort of independence I would like to see from Mr Moore is some support for the Institute of the Arts and the development of our culture out there.

No, Mr Osborne, there are opportunities within this budget. You can back it in that there are futsal slabs sprinkled throughout this legislation. There are funny coloured aeroplanes with funny little signs on them. You will not be able to tell what they are as they go past at 1,000 feet and 400 kilometres per hour, but there are those sorts of things. There are "Feel the Power" numberplates. There are a few left over these days. There are all of those little disasters sprinkled right throughout the budget. All you have to do is say, "Look, we do not want any more of these Bruce Stadium debacles and all of these sponges that soak up millions and millions of dollars. We want to put it to some long-term purpose, and a good purpose to put it to would be funding the Institute of the Arts". No, do not ask them; they will ignore you and treat you with contempt. What are you going to do when they say no? The only way is to demand. Use a little bit of your muscle.

MR OSBORNE: I seek leave to speak to the amendment, Mr Speaker.

Leave granted.

MR OSBORNE: I am going to ignore Mr Berry. I will go to the one point raised by Mr Wood. He said to stare at them, eyeball to eyeball. I have to say that I had no input into the budget. Mr Rugendyke had no input into the budget. There are a lot of things in there that I would like to see changed. I would like to see more money spent on policing. I would like to see many other issues approached, Mr Speaker. I think there is a real danger in picking one or two issues when we have had no input into the whole process. I think my amendment just reiterates the recommendation from the Estimates Committee. I once again encourage the Government to see what steps they can take to ensure that the arts community here in the ACT does not suffer because of this decision.

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