Page 565 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.31): Madam Speaker, a motion of want of confidence in a Minister is a fairly serious matter - or at least it should be. The fact that one week last year in the Assembly I think I set a record of facing two such motions within a week indicates that to some extent the currency is being rather devalued in this place, and the fairly vitriolic political rhetoric of the previous speech would indicate a lot of what is behind this motion. But a want of confidence motion should be a serious matter. It is something that members should not vote on lightly, and I am sure that members on the cross benches will not vote on it lightly. Mr Humphries indicated that he is unaware of how they are going to vote, as are we. Clearly, Independent members have been thinking very hard and long about this issue. I want to address my remarks this afternoon, Madam Speaker, directly at those Independent members, because there are some very important issues of principle at stake.
What is unprecedented at the moment in the ACT is the fact that we have an inquiry on foot under the ACT Inquiries Act with terms of reference that go directly to the conduct of a Minister of the ACT Executive. Madam Speaker, the terms of reference refer to:
(c) the involvement of the Minister for Sport, the staff and board of ACTTAB and any other official in relation to the agreement between ACTTAB and VITAB; and
(d) any other relevant matters.
So the facts surrounding this matter - the involvement of the Minister for Sport - are before the inquiry. It is clear from the terms - - -
Mr Humphries: Not according to Ms Follett.
MR CONNOLLY: What Ms Follett said is that it does not affect her confidence in Mr Berry, nor does it affect the confidence of any of us in the Government in our colleague. But it is a matter where the Government has put - - -
Mr Humphries: No. "Does not question Mr Berry's competence" is what she said.
MR CONNOLLY: If you believe what you read in the Canberra Times, you sometimes get things very wrong. Madam Speaker, it is a significant matter for the Government to have an inquiry under the Inquiries Act into its own conduct. It was clearly going to happen on some occasion. We have had one inquiry, although not precisely into the actions of this Government. That one inquiry was into Ainslie Village. This is only the second time that the Inquiries Act has been used.
Members of the First Assembly would recall that the Inquiries Act was passed by this Assembly. It was in fact initiated by the Alliance Government but, I think, at the end of the day came into force when we were in office. I cannot quite recall the timing, but there was a conscious decision that a royal commission power was too large a hammer to crack certain nuts and that it would be prudent to have a form of inquiry that had the powers of
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