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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (30 June) . . Page.. 1881 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

What a significant factor it is not to advise the Assembly as it is debating the future financial arrangements that might get the Government out of this appalling hole that they have dug for themselves and the ACT taxpayer in relation to Bruce! Is this not perhaps an important piece of information? We are today debating this Government's handling of the Bruce Stadium fiasco without a most vital piece of financial information - that the ACT Government is going to have to pay a commercial rental in 10 years' time. It is a vital piece of information. All of the debate we have had about Bruce Stadium today we have had without this vital piece of knowledge and we are being asked, if this motion fails tonight, to debate the Government's budget tomorrow. We are being asked to debate tomorrow an amendment to an Appropriation Bill to retrospectively approve the appropriation for Bruce Stadium and even now the Chief Minister will not tell us what is going on. She will not tell us what the bottom line is. She will not tell us what we are up for. She comes here, throws herself on the mercy of the Assembly, and says, "Look, I am doing really well. I am trying to save the taxpayer money. I am being open and transparent. This is the full monty". And every time you turn the page you find something else, you find another hole, you find another bit of secret information.

Here we are at the conclusion of a long and weary debate about the future of Bruce Stadium and this Chief Minister's complete mismanagement of the issue and what do we discover at the end of the day? We discover that from 15 April the Chief Minister has had in her possession a letter from the Prime Minister of Australia demanding, on behalf of the Commonwealth, commercial rental for Bruce Stadium. The mismanagement, the incompetence and the deceit that characterise the way that this Government has dealt with this issue are just staggering. It is a shamble, it is a fiasco, it is an absolute disgrace, and this Minister does not deserve to survive.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

MR STANHOPE: I seek a very short extension, please.

Mr Humphries: You have already had a short extenuation.

MR STANHOPE: How many extensions did you have?

MR SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order. Order! I address these remarks to all members: I have heard requests all day for a short extension. Structure your speeches, please. I direct that to all members. Thank you. Mr Stanhope, please continue.

Mr Humphries: Is this going to be short or long, Jon? Are you going to take the whole time?

MR STANHOPE: It was going to be short.(Further extension of time granted) Mr Speaker, the Government has set up its defences like tenpins at a bowling alley and they are just as easily knocked over, as they have been all day. There is no substance to them. There is no defence to the simple fact that this Chief Minister and the Government that this Chief Minister heads have broken fundamental laws. The Government spent taxpayers' money without authority. The matter is grave and demands the gravest sanction.

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