Not so in the Assembly yesterday. The Opposition’s attack became unconcerted when Trevor Kaine got to his feet.
After some concerted questions from his colleagues on the suitability of a Labor appointee to the Tourism Commission, he stopped his team as it was striving for the tryline by diverting to the pet irrelevancy of the first Assembly by asking a question about chemicals in the water supply.
Remember the fluoride debate? Mr Kaine asked about a contract for sodium meta bisulphate. Was the Minister for Water, Terry Connolly, aware that it was allergenic? Would it go into Canberra’s water supply?
Mr Connolly took the question on notice, but Question Time never got back to the tourism appointment. (A report about it appears on an earlier page.)
The Government, however, was too generous by half. Instead of leaving the appointment alone, it sought after Question Time to censure the Opposition questioners, giving them a chance to re-concert, even if they lost on an essentially party-line vote.
Back in Question Time, the Opposition tried again to make the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, uncomfortable about her $180,000 trip to Japan in October-November.
When Mr Kaine suggested that he (Mr Kaine) should go, Mr de Domenico was unkind enough to suggest: “”No, No, you would be called Tokyo Trevor.”
The Liberals compared the costs with two Federal Ministers who went to Japan for less than half the cost. Tokyo Rose, who drove herself in a government Ford Laser on attaining the chief ministership, whereas Tokyo Trevor while Chief Minister opted for the chauffeur-driven LTD, assured the Assembly she would be efficient and frugal on the trip which she was doing at the instigation of the ACT private sector.
Mr Moore asked _ the day after it was revealed visiting medicos at ACT hospitals get among the highest pay in the country _ why did Ricky Stuart have to go to Sydney to get his ankle fixed. The Minister for Health, Wayne Berry, said people had a choice, but, anyway, the ACT system could not cope with the crush of fans at the hospital. “”Especially those in the waiting-list queue,” chimed in Mr de Domenico.
Mr Connolly revealed that police are driving around Tuggeranong in beat-up old cars. He told Ellnor Grassy (Lab) that the days of the reactive, clerical-style cop were over. Young police were out and about catching breakers and enterers in artful ways.
In less then a month they had caught 22 people and charged them with 102 offences in Tuggeranong. ACT-wide 108 had been caught and charged with 550 offences over $91,000 worth of goods, he said.
How many will be reclaimed after the robbees have replaced the wrecked phonograms with new CD players on the proceeds of insurance is anyone’s guess.
The Minister for Education, Bill Wood, who announced earlier that sport in ACT schools would concentrate on skills-building rather than elite sports, told Greg Cornwell (Lib) that only some Canberra Institute of Technology courses would embrace the flattened competent/not competent grading system. Mr Cornwell had asked whether teachers had been instructed to stop marking after 50 per cent.
Mr Wood said only those courses in the national (Carmichael-based) system would adopt the new plan. Other courses would continue with the multi-grading strive-for-excellence system.
Mr Wood then told David Lamont (Lab) that, yes, the 950 students at peak enrolment at Lanyon High School would be properly educated. What counted was not how many students were enrolled at a school, but what went on inside.
At that Ms Follett, who heads a minority government, moved that further questions be put on notice, while Opposition and Independent Members with eager questions on their lips sat mute. Surely, one day they might seek to extend Question Time if they think the Government has so much to hide.