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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2686 ..

MR CORBELL: Cash for comment? Mrs Dunne, if you think it is cash for comment, I am very happy to forward those comments to every youth organisation in town, to show just how out of touch your party is when it comes to engaging young people in policy-making.

The bottom line is that the Youth Coalition has welcomed this initiative and believes it is a strong initiative that engages young people in policy-making in Canberra. Go and ask the coalition if they think Youth InterACT is a good initiative. Youth InterACT is an excellent initiative which has been welcomed by the youth sector across the ACT.

We will have a very diverse and representative group of young people sitting on the ministers youth council. We will have an annual youth conference of over 100 young people meeting every year. We will have four forums occurring across the year, which will discuss individual issues affecting young people. That is more than you lot ever did when it came to engaging young people in policy-making. It is a significant step forward and it is an initiative that the government is proud to be implementing.

MRS CROSS: Is the fact that you have to pay people to meet with you a reflection of your popularity, as opposed to the Chief Minister, who is apparently too popular to see anybody?

MR CORBELL: I know this causes some merriment among opposition members but, quite seriously, young people-

Mr Pratt: This is Mr Corbell being wounded.

MR CORBELL: If you do not want to hear the answer, I will not give it to you.

Gungahlin Drive extension

MR PRATT: My question is directed to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, three months ago you were saying openly and very publicly that you were the most popular chief minister ever. Two nights ago you were roundly booed by the residents of Aranda at a meeting about the next stage of the GDE. You said yesterday that you were not aware that there was a live or outstanding invitation for you to attend a meeting of the Tuggeranong Community Council. Chief Minister, would you regard their letters to you of 4 January, 22 March and 3 April as live or outstanding invitations? I seek leave to table the letters.

Leave granted.

MR PRATT: Thank you. I present the following papers:

Tuggeranong Community Council Incorporated-Access to Chief Minister-Facsimile copies of correspondence from the President of the Tuggeranong Community Council Incorporated to Mr Jon Stanhope, MLA, Chief Minister, dated 4 January 2002, 22 March 2002, 3 April 2002 and 1 May 2002.

Chief Minister, how many times and how many ways do you need to be invited before you will agree to meet this very important sector of the ACT community?

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