Page 2726 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016
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what can be learnt in opposition. In opposition you are on your own. You learn to make an argument, to do your research, to build your agenda, to know the forms and purposes of this place.
Labor learnt the lessons of the 1998 election defeat well. Reinvigorated, united and focused on winning government, the caucus was single-minded in its focus on holding Kate Carnell to account. The Auditor-General’s report into the debacle of the Bruce Stadium financing proved her ultimate downfall, as we all know, but along the way there was some high farce and some memorable times, like painting the stadium’s dead, frostbitten turf green for an IOC inspection.
I recall that at around that time in this place, I sat where Mr Wall sits now in this chamber. Next to me sat Wayne Berry. At the start of one question time, I noticed that Wayne had a white plastic shopping bag under his desk. I said to Wayne, “What is that?” He said, “It’s a plant. Look; it’s a tropical plant. I left it outside. It’s been killed by the frost.” I said to Wayne, “What are you going to do?” He said, “I’m going to ask the Chief Minister why the government decided it was a good idea to buy turf grown north of Brisbane for the refurbished Bruce Stadium. Surely her officials should have known it would wither in the Canberra frost.” Wayne asked the question. The Chief Minister scowled and Speaker Cornwell blustered, demanding that Mr Berry “put away that plant” as he hollered for order at the temerity of the standing orders being breached. I think Wayne was named that day. Needless to say, it was not the first time.
Labor in opposition was united and determined, and these qualities have endured across every term Labor has been in government. Our caucus has been a place of equals. Family quarrels, party quarrels, have never distracted us from our purpose in government.
From 1997 I have seen up close five Labor leaders: Andrew Whitecross, Wayne Berry, Jon Stanhope, Katy Gallagher and Andrew Barr. They have all had, and have, their own strengths and weaknesses, passions and obsessions, yet all have maintained—all have maintained—an unerring commitment to Labor’s cause of progressive government, government that delivers opportunities to make a difference, for fairness, equality and sustainability for our generations now and for generations yet to come.
In opposition I was strongly focused on my portfolio areas of environment and planning, portfolios that have mattered to me throughout my time in this place. The agenda Labor carved out in that time, with the establishment of an independent planning and land authority and the re-establishment of public sector land development, are enduring reforms that last to this day. Planning and development will always be an area of contest, dispute and controversy. Where the state is engaged in a market intervention, for that is plainly what planning is, there will be disputation. I am proud to have created a statutory office of chief planner and a legal framework that allows development assessment and decision-making to be made at arm’s length from the executive government. These are arrangements that must be maintained, and even further strengthened, so that the public interest in planning remains paramount.
Equally, the role of public sector land development is so very important. In the ACT, in our leasehold system, the increases in value that occur due to public actions
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