Page 1760 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 August 2007

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I do note Mrs Dunne’s goodwill in refining some of her requests when it has been put to her that it would take possibly 10 or 15 years to accumulate all of the documentation that she requires. Some of the requests bordered on facile, but that is Mrs Dunne’s prerogative. The point I am making is simply that to accuse the government that has provided her with 13,000 pages of information in response to her FOI requests, requests that continue to come in—good luck to her, I suppose. She is desperate to see what it is like to be a minister, to get access to all of that information. There you go; she keeps on putting in the FOI requests. But the other side to this equation is the cost within the department in terms of staff time—the amount of time and effort that is required to turn around requests within the statutory time frames.

I would like to put on record my thanks to the department and to the staff within the department who have worked so diligently and professionally in attempting to respond to all of Mrs Dunne’s FOI requests and delivering 13,000 pages of information to her to ensure that there is transparency, accountability and openness in this process.

I went for six months in this place without getting a single question from Mrs Dunne on education matters. There is ample opportunity for Mrs Dunne to ask me questions. She does not always like the answers. She puts that up as the reason she will not ask questions—because she does not like my answers. That is tough luck, Mrs Dunne; I get to choose how I answer a question. You can ask all you like, but the prerogative of the minister is to respond as he or she sees fit. That is certainly what I will do. I am always happy to take questions. I welcome interest in these areas.

There has been a robust debate within the community around how we should provide education throughout the ACT. I was particularly taken by a talkback caller on the ABC recently who noted that schools should not be treated like corner stores, and that the government was right to go through—

Mr Mulcahy: I think it was Jon Stanhope who said that.

MR BARR: No, I think you will find it was a talkback caller who rang in. I was listening intently. He did make a very valid point. As I say, for Mrs Dunne to wander through and try and pick at a couple of scabs and some areas of discontent in what has been a system-wide response— (Time expired.)

MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.48): I welcome the opportunity to speak about what is a matter of great importance to the people of Canberra—the importance of open and accountable government in the ACT. Being open and accountable is in itself an important matter for the Assembly to discuss but, even more, today is a chance to reflect on the failure of the current government to abide by these fundamental principles.

This is not the first time that we have discussed accountability. On 1 May, we discussed a matter of public importance proposed by one of my colleagues about accountability over the use of funds in the ACT. Later that same week, we spoke about governance and its importance. It is an indictment of those opposite that since that time—when, it should be pointed out, the Chief Minister claimed, “My


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