Page 1864 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
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now becoming clear that much of the analysis contained in that report was very poorly based. As far as we are able to tell, the report’s analyses with respect to the ACT’s revenue raising capacity, the capacity of government schools, the prospects for the business sector, the prospects for tourism and the impact of reductions on the sport and recreation industry have now been shown to be inaccurate.
Treasurer, if you are so confident of the veracity of the analysis in the report of the functional review, why will you not table the report so that the ACT community can make up their own minds about the conclusions reached by Mr Costello?
MR STANHOPE: Actually, I have answered the question. You know, cabinet confidentiality is an important convention. It is a convention which every government has relied on. The Liberal Party in government relied on it in relation to the Bruce Stadium fiasco. The Liberal Party in government refused to release—
Mrs Dunne: So were you lying when you said you would not hide behind it?
MR STANHOPE: We asked for them, just as you are. It is part and parcel of politics, of course. We asked for the cabinet documents in relation to Bruce Stadium and you refused to release them. We asked for the cabinet documents in relation to the secret deal that was done in relation to Kinlyside. You refused to give us the cabinet documents in relation to the under-the-table deal that was done by the Liberal Party in relation to the wholesale sale of Kinlyside for rural residential. We asked for those, I remember. I think I moved a motion in the Assembly. We asked you to release the cabinet documents in relation to Kinlyside and you refused, and understandably so.
We asked you for the cabinet documents in relation to the Fujitsu deal—an amazing deal! You were not just content to provide them with a lifelong payroll tax holiday. You gave them the two top stories of our health building. They were going to bring 1,000 workers to the ACT. They brought 12 or something in the end. That was an amazing fiasco! We asked for those cabinet documents, too. We asked for the cabinet documents in relation to Fujitsu and you said no.
I have no doubt that the Speaker—he might be able to confirm this at another time—asked for the cabinet documents in relation to the decision to build the futsal slab. I think you refused. I have no doubt that the cabinet documents in relation to all of these amazing decisions that you took in government were refused to us on the basis of cabinet confidentiality.
There are a whole range of reasons why decision making by government, particularly at a cabinet level, does require a level of confidentiality. Otherwise the fearless and detailed advice which governments seek and need to make decisions would, of course, be eroded and destroyed. There are very good reasons for the convention that documents prepared for cabinet to aid and assist it in its deliberations attract a level of confidence. There are very good reasons. I stand by them.
We test those reasons from time to time, as you do. But this was a cabinet-in-confidence document prepared specifically to inform and aid cabinet in relation to a range of decisions. The government will not change its position or view on the status of those documents, just as in government you never did.
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