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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2850 ..

Mr Stanhope: We are just trying to get at the truth of the matter.

MR HUMPHRIES: Listen and you will find out. Mr Speaker, we were promised electorate offices. That term wasn't coined by the Liberal Party-it came from a Labor Party statement. It was modified, of course, subsequently and it became a different term by the time the election arrived. But, nonetheless, it was promised.

The electorate offices-this was going to cost $50,000, according to Labor-became access to public libraries but, I might hasten to add, not public libraries outside the electorate of the member concerned. Mr Wood, for example, as Minister for Urban Services, is not proposing to translate himself across town into a public library in Belconnen to answer questions from the constituents of Mrs Dunne, Ms Dundas and indeed you, Chief Minister, about what is happening to roads or municipal services in Belconnen. That is not going to be available under this scheme, which under your policy was headed "Public Access to MLAs".

Mr Corbell: What nonsense.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is in your policy document. I can quote it again if you like.

Mr Corbell: Are you saying that the minister is never going to talk to anyone in Belconnen? What a nonsense.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, but if he doesn't go-

Mr Corbell: If that is your argument, it is an absurd notion.

MR HUMPHRIES: If you want to drag this out, that is fine. You said you were going to be accessible as ministers. The Liberal government used to arrange for ministers to go at a publicly announced time to a publicly advertised place so that any person who came through the door could speak to us. We did that for 61/2 years. For 61/2 years every minister in the government did that. No-one was ever plausibly able to say to the government of the day, "We can't get to see you. We can't get access to such and such a minister." We put that pressure valve in place and ministers could not hide and avoid attending these meetings-they had to be there. Mr Speaker, this government has dramatically wound back that public access.

Members opposite trivialise and giggle about this issue. They scoff at and make light of the suggestions. They say, "We've got electorate offices." But at the end of the day the most fundamental aspect of supposed open and accountable government is access to the members who make it up. People want to speak to the ministers in the government, not, with great respect, Mr Hargreaves, Ms Gallagher and Ms MacDonald, the backbenchers, or even you, Mr Speaker. If Mr Wood under this scheme is only available in a public library or a community centre, whatever it might be, in Tuggeranong, the government is not engineering the access to members of the government which the people deserve, and which I would go so far as to say was promised during the last election when you spoke about being an open and accountable government.

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