CARNELL'S THREAT TO CALL POLL

A.C.T. CHIEF Minister Kate Carnell has warned she will seek an early
election within four weeks if the ACT becomes ungovernable due to the
financial deadlock over a self-injecting clinic.

"The Government is prepared to go to an election . . .," Mrs Carnell
told the Canberra Sunday Times. "It is not our preferred option
because we would like to see everybody get on with
Government."

Mrs Carnell said she had already taken the unprecedented step of
giving a briefing of the situation on Friday to the federal Minister
for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Ian Macdonald.

"If Government becomes unworkable, if we can't form a workable and
suitable Government, I can ask the minister to approach the
Governor-General to ask for an election.

"If there is no way for the Government or an alternative government to
implement [the Budget], then there is no way forward . . . It really
is a bit of a last resort."

On Friday, Mrs Carnell became the first ACT chief minister since the
advent of self-government in 1989 to have her Government's Budget
rejected in the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Cross-benchers Dave Rugendyke and Paul Osborne made good their threat
to vote against a Budget containing an appropriation of $800,000 for
the clinic.

They joined Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker and the six-member ACT Labor
Party to topple the Budget Appropriations Bill nine votes to eight.
However, earlier in the sitting, Mrs Tucker voted to support the
health line in the Budget containing the clinic appropriation.

The Labor Party voted against every line in the Budget and then voted
against the Budget as a whole.

Mrs Carnell said the next step could come as early as four weeks from
now when she estimated the impact of the failure of supply would begin
to take effect.

"They have certainly indicated that their position is solid," she
said.

"It would need to be sorted out in the next four weeks . . . I would
like to see it sorted out within that time. It is a matter of seeing
if we can find a way forward."

The ACT would still be required to hold another election again on the
third Saturday of October, 2001.

But she has not given up with Mr Osborne and Mr Rugendyke and plans
more discussions with them this week. Mrs Carnell said there were
signs they did not want a change of Government over the issue.

There was no interest in holding an extraordinary sitting of the
Assembly this week and so any solution to the stand-off could be
several weeks away. The next scheduled sitting is the last week in
August, although this could be brought forward to solve the Budget
impasse.

She said the clinic was only a two-year trial with a sunset clause and
it could not continue unless it returned to the Assembly.

"And what happens if it saves a couple of lives, or if it turned out
nobody used it. If not we would stop it. It is not set in stone."

Mrs Carnell reassured public servants that they would be
paid.

At the heart of the impasse is the decision by Independents Paul
Osborne and Dave Rugendyke to block the Carnell Government's sixth
Budget because it allocated $800,000 for the heroin injecting-room
trial.