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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2805 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

the impact that the Planning and Land Bill will have on existing legislation and does not want it scrutinised by the committee.

And again, when we have asked for openness and accountability on the subject of Gungahlin Drive, what do we get? "It's all there. If you look hard enough you'll possibly find it." What we have is a minister who will not tell the people of Gungahlin what is happening with a road that is vital to their transportation links. A wit the other day, I think on Radio 2CN, likened this minister to Michelangelo and the people of Gungahlin to Sixtus II, about the Sistine Chapel. The minister doesn't paint as well as Michelangelo, but the question is: "When will you be finished, Minister? When will you be finished and when will you be open with the people of Gungahlin and tell them when their road will be finished?"

Again, on 2CN the other day I almost thought that he made a commitment. He did actually mention a date-1 July 2003-as a commencement date but, when you actually looked at what he said, basically what he said was: "It was possible, it was our aim that in the best of all possible worlds that's the time we'd really like to get started." Again, these are weasel words that amount to nothing. So when this minister says, "When did I actually make that commitment,?, it's a very good question because he actually never makes a commitment that you could ever tie him down to. This is the way this government goes. It says it wants to be honest and open and accountable, but there is no accountability in this place and I suspect the people of this territory will soon realise that there is very little honesty.

Mr Corbell: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Again Mrs Dunne is suggesting that the government is dishonest. It is unparliamentary and she should withdraw it.

MR SPEAKER: We've been across that ground, Mrs Dunne.

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, I made the point that the people of Canberra might realise they are not being honest. I did not say that they were not being honest.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.29): Mr Speaker, I would like to respond most generally to the government's response to the Select Committee on Estimates. In particular, I would like to address some of the issues that Mrs Dunne raised in her speech, which was highly emotionally charged but seriously lacking in substance.

Mrs Dunne is quick to make allegations, accuse and point the finger at this government for being, in her words, not accountable, not open and not forward on issues. But when you actually listen to her speech, where is the evidence? Where is the substantive argument that points this out, reinforces or indeed supports in any way Mrs Dunne's argument? It simply isn't there.

Mrs Dunne started her speech by saying that the Planning and Environment Committee in dealing with draft variations, was simply doing the bidding of the government. I don't know whether Mrs Dunne has actually looked at the legislation that gives the committee which she chairs the power to look at draft variations, but it's actually a statutory requirement of the land act that that committee looks at draft variations.

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