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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1967 ..
MR WOOD
(continuing):I think that this proposal is a backward step. It is simply delaying what does need to be done. We do need to take some action. I have heard people opposite and the crossbench say at various times that we should do something, but what are they doing on this issue? They are deferring it. On this issue, you are now deferring any constructive action. The government is fiercely opposed to deferment, to leaving the industry in a further state of doubt, by putting this bill to a committee. I think that that is a very bad idea.
MRS DUNNE
(6.19): Mr Speaker, I do apologise to-MR SPEAKER
: Are you speaking to the amendment or closing the debate?MRS DUNNE
: I am speaking to the amendment. I have not actually spoken on this issue yet, Mr Speaker, because, I am sorry, of a lapse of attention. I am quite happy to speak to the amendment at the same time.Mr Wood is here fulfilling all the Sir Humphrey stereotypes. I remember the one in which he said, "Yes, we must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do it. It doesn't matter whether it is the right thing."Mr Wood was pointing to me and to members of the crossbench and saying, "Isn't it about time you engaged in this debate?"This issue has probably taken up more of my time with constituents, apart from draft variation 200, than any other matter that I have dealt with this year.
I have talked to the industry, in and out and up and down, for the entire year. These are a group of people, no matter which part of the industry they come from, who are deeply unhappy and deeply dissatisfied with this government and this is an industry which has come to me-and, I suspect, to other members of the crossbench-and said, "Please, can you take it to your committee, Mrs Dunne?"I am here today because members of the industry have asked me to do it. Their response has been, "I would rather have another six months of uncertainty than go down the path proposed by the Labor government."
Mr Wood
: Are you going to come back with solutions? Do you have solutions? Have you got a path that you can see?MRS DUNNE
: I have not got a path because I do not have a closed mind like Mr Wood does, Mr Speaker. Just to show how my mind is not closed, I will take advice from Mr Wood if he thinks that the committee should see particular classes of people. He can come and suggest those to us and we will consider it. This is about the big picture, about how everything fits together, and is not just a standalone issue, as Ms Tucker said, about competition policy, although we know what the National Competition Council has said about this proposal in its other form in Tasmania. This is not an original idea. The Tasmanians have been trying to implement this plan almost verbatim for some time, but the National Competition Council says that it does not fit its criteria.Mr Wood
: They have.MRS DUNNE
: This is not just about competition. It is about actually getting a solution which will serve-Mr Wood
: We have agreement on it.
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