Page 2627 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 July 2008
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Open? Open? I am not sure of the dictionary definition of “open” he was using when he said, “If we make mistakes we will be open about them.” If the Chief Minister wanted to be open, if he wanted to live by the code he wrote, the code he took to the election at which he became Chief Minister, he would be open about this. Ms Gallagher said she knew there was nothing untoward in the documents, but I cannot understand how she would know that if she has not read all 3,044 pages that have not been tabled, so I think the Deputy Chief Minister is flying a little bit blind there. But why won’t the Chief Minister and his government honour the code of conduct?
Where is accountability when the Chief Minister can give selective documents to the media but he cannot give them to the estimates committee or he cannot table them in this Assembly? This is not just about the FOI process. We have asked for these documents. I think we asked for them yesterday: “Minister, will you table the documents?” “Ooh, I don’t think so.” In estimates, “Minister, will you table the documents?” “No, we can’t possibly do that. We’re reviewing the FOI that you asked for.”
The Chief Minister can ask for all of these documents. He could come down here if he was in the building. The Deputy Chief Minister could come down here and table them now. Mr Corbell could table them. Instead, he has been giving patronising lectures—like some university tutor that he will end up as after 18 October. He can table all the government documents. The ACTPLA minister, the planning minister, the health minister, the disability minister and the Chief Minister can choose to table their documents as they see fit. They saw fit to give them to the media but they do not want to give them to the people of the ACT.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (4.50): I think it is a bit of a sad reflection on those guys opposite, Mr Speaker, that they cannot count. Perhaps in fact we ought to replace the four-minute symbol over there with an abacus, with the first eight digits clearly marked in iridescent red—because these guys clearly cannot count. They are up for a stunt every now and again. I think that is probably why they were really upset when we started doing parking on the futsal slab—because it removed the big top where they would normally be able to perform once or twice a year.
There was a no-confidence motion moved on the Chief Minister. The same arguments were run then, and they were lost. There was a motion run the other day and it was lost. What part of “the people are not interested” do these guys across there not understand?
Mr Smyth talked about families consoling their children of a night time. I seriously doubt that. He chucked in little ones, hoping to get a bit of a run on them—this is how contemptible some people can be when they go down into the gutter and stare upwards. He said that the people out there want to know whose retirement plans we are interested in. Well, I can tell you whose retirement plans we are interested in. They are those of Mr Smyth and Mr Pratt. We are interested in their retirement plans, particularly those of Mr Pratt, because I think he ought to go to some pre-retirement
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