Page 2219 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
books he should be reading—for example, on accountability, engineering for bridge building, and a range of other issues such as how you manage closed schools. This government is not accountable, and the ministers’ behaviour shows that.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.52): Part 1.2 of the budget is dedicated to the ACT executive. This vote, when it passes—and it will pass because we have majority government—will give the executive $5,439,000 to spend on themselves and their activities in doing their ministerial duty. I think if you went out to the public today and asked them if they are getting value for money for their $5,439,000, they would say no. Indeed, the members of the estimates committee, in both the report and the dissenting report, highlight instances of ministers who refuse to be held to account.
That is a sad thing because the Chief Minister put in place a ministerial code of conduct. That such a large number of his ministers refuse to abide by that code of conduct is an indictment of them. It is also an indictment of the Chief Minister’s control of his ministers. When there is $5,439,000 to assist them in their ministerial duties, they should be held accountable.
Last year in the estimates report there were references to the activities of Mr Hargreaves. Mr Hargreaves, it was suggested, did not assist the process, and a number of paragraphs and recommendations in the 2006-07 appropriation report could easily be read as the paragraphs and recommendations in the 2007-08 report. Clearly, Mr Hargreaves does not do his job. Recommendation 1 of last year’s report states:
That Ministers be reminded, in future budget Estimates hearings, of their responsibility to the Committee to allow full and unfettered scrutiny of budget related issues and Government accountability without Ministers resorting to inappropriate personal attacks and other avoidance tactics.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, you were the chair of this year’s committee. What does this year’s report say? Recommendation 6 states:
The Committee is concerned about the conduct of the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services during some of the hearings. At times the Minister was less than respectful to certain members of the Committee during questioning. The Committee reminds Ministers that, under the Ministerial Code of Conduct, Ministers have an obligation to “recognise the importance of full and true disclosure and accountability to the Parliament” as well as having respect for persons.
There we have it. This has happened not once, but over two years and through two processes. Mr Hargreaves can make light of it. He can talk about reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is an insult to the book, if he actually understands what it is about. Fundamentally, he is either incompetent or he does not want to answer.
I can accept that he is incompetent. Some people have failings, and that may well be Mr Hargreaves’s failing. But if he is actually hiding from the estimates committee, which is charged with scrutiny of the budget as part of their responsibility to the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .