Page 589 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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managing the prison system because he has got numbers all over the place and none of them simply add up.
The problem is this: ministers come into this place and should be able to tell us the truth. This minister does not come in and tell the truth. He continually obfuscates, he continually twists and he continually changes. And this place should hold him to account for that because that is the role of this place. This place is to hold ministers to account. I know the Greens do not want to do that. I know the Greens refuse that because they are third-party insurance for the ALP. But on behalf of the people of the ACT we will continue to do that.
Mr Corbell got up in his usual way and just said, “Another day, another censure. It is a waste of time.” It is not. Because of the pressure that the opposition at least is willing to put on this minister, the minister admitted on radio that yes, he had to go and ask questions because we were asking the questions that he chose not to, refused to or did not want to because at heart he knew the truth. “We built a prison that is full.”
Again, the minister has got form on this. That other great project of Simon Corbell that was meant to be delivered on time and on budget, of course, was the Gungahlin Drive extension. On time, on budget! The original budget was $55 million. On time was 2005. Instead here we are in 2010 and the project is still being built. Indeed, on the day it opened, Gungahlin Drive was at capacity. This is the minister with form. This is the minister who continually fails to administer his portfolios, which is why he has been stripped of them. He has had education, he has had planning He should now lose corrections.
Mr Stanhope: Your voice is getting a bit high, Brendan.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Stanhope.
Mr Stanhope: I am just trying to be helpful. This is starting to sound a bit embarrassing.
MR SMYTH: It is sad that the people of the ACT end up paying for this. The people of the ACT constantly end up paying for this. Thank you for your interjections, Chief Minister. Keep going, Jon. Nobody can defend the indefensible, not even you, on this one.
It is quite clear that the numbers that this minister continues to present to the people of the ACT through this place are wrong. They are misleading. This minister lies to this Assembly. When he says there is no imagination, there is no thought, there is no substance, he is the man with no substance. He is the man who cannot stand up here and say, “I got it wrong.” He is the man who will not stand up and say, “I will do the right thing and resign.” So it is up to us to hold him to account.
The problem is that the Greens are not willing to hold them to account. And I am sure Mr Corbell thinks that if he says it often enough, people will take it to be true. He says we lack moral courage. Where is your moral courage, Mr Corbell? Where is your courage to do the right thing and, as Westminster demands, resign for misleading this
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