Page 2626 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 July 2008
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improper involvement or, the second part of her sentence, ultimately that the government took decisions around this project specifically about where it was because that is not the case. But it is quite clear from that single document, the brief to the Chief Minister: “You have to make the decision and send it to the proponents.” So the documents do prove that the government made decisions, that the Chief Minister makes decisions. What we do not know is what other decisions were made.
We would like to thank Mr Corbell for his patronising lecture about the FOI. I want to give him back a bit of a lecture from the Chief Minister. What did the Chief Minister say on 14 March 2001 in his “A code of good government” speech? Jon Stanhope, as Leader of the Opposition—“I forgot to read my speech later on”—said:
These are parts of Labor’s core values—fairness, openness, responsibility—and they are the qualities that will characterise a Stanhope Labor Government.
Not! And he goes on:
An open government.
ACT Labor believes that responsible governments are open and accountable governments.
Well, live up to your code of good conduct. Be open. Table these documents. Prove us wrong. But the sad thing is that the documents do not prove us wrong. In fact, they will confirm that we are right.
The Chief Minister, or then Leader of the Opposition, went on to say:
Labor won’t hide behind the cloak of confidentiality.
Well, yes they are. Then it goes on to say:
It is essential that there is always a paper-trail when the expenditure of public money is involved.
If it is always essential that there is a paper trail, show us the paper trail of how you got to this decision. He then goes on to say:
Labor rejects the notion of public servants as entrepreneurs.
Well, we know that people were trying to make more money out of the blocks in Hume; the head of the LDA said that. It just keeps going on, but this is the best of it:
There will be no gloss.
There will no beating of the breast.
… … …
We will try not to make mistakes, and if we do, we will be open about them.
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