Page 1644 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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government, will pick up those issues and ensure that they are implemented.
Ministerial Responsibility
MR MOORE: My question is to the Chief Minister, Mr Kaine. Can the Chief Minister advise the Assembly whether he requested - and, if so, what criteria he used to request - the resignation of Mrs Nolan from her position as Executive Deputy? Has he considered applying the same criteria to Mr Duby as a result of the Minister's recent brush with the law, or is the Chief Minister considering creating a new set of criteria to apply specifically to Mr Duby's case to allow him to retain his ministry?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, as is often the case with questions from Mr Moore - the question rests on an incorrect presumption, and that is that somehow the position of a Minister and the position of some other person in this parliament are the same. They are not the same. First of all, Mrs Nolan had no ministerial responsibilities. I have been making that quite clear since day one, although members of the opposition do not choose to listen. She had no executive responsibility. So the positions are really quite different. To try to draw them together as though there is some kind of comparability, as members of the opposition have attempted to do, is quite erroneous and quite spurious. As to Mrs Nolan's position, I discussed her situation with her after the court ruling recently and she determined that she would resign from her position as Executive Deputy.
MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. My question was about criteria, Chief Minister. I wonder whether you could start by answering the question and whether you could identify clearly the different criteria that you have applied to Mrs Nolan. Have you applied any criteria at all to Mr Duby's situation?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I am prepared to answer that question, as I always do, in a straightforward manner. I did not apply any criteria to Mrs Nolan. She chose to resign her position. In the case of Mr Duby I applied the normal rules of ministerial responsibility and the conditions under which Ministers in other parliaments stand down or are required to resign from their position. I applied the same rules that other parliaments apply.
Federal Funding for the ACT
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Chief Minister. I have heard further reports from the media about the rejection by the Prime Minister of an additional year of transitional funding for the Territory. How will the Government respond to this action by the Commonwealth?
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