Page 2134 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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We have a consistent pattern of avoidance of truth, of censure and an absolute lack of confidence by the electorate in government. People have stopped listening and no-one really believes the government any more. Is it any wonder?
On any front we have a lack of transparency and trust and openness. Minister Barr is offside with the AEU on a number of fronts. Minister Corbell is offside with planners and prison warders, and I bet the hospital system is just delighted that their minister is still Katy Gallagher.
And let us not forget the GDE, the ongoing hospital saga, bullying issues, school closures, planning debacles, poor accounting management, the blame games, the GFC, of course, and the GST as the cause of poor financial performance—not the refusal to take and listen to advice, not the refusal to engage honestly and openly in real consultation.
In August last year, my colleague Mr Hanson described health minister Gallagher as a failure. He suggested she had failed the patients, failed the doctors, failed the nurses, failed the people she had refused to support through the whole obstetrics review and she had failed the health system.
Eight months later she was rewarded with the chief ministership. On past performances, the Chief Minister and the ACT government are going to need more than tough talking words to the public service and a rosy philosophy with buzzword phrases like “openness and accountability”. The territory needs leadership. Under the new regime, and sadly for Canberra, it is likely to be as lacking as the last 10 years have been.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (5.04): I thank Mr Doszpot for bringing this matter of public importance to the Assembly today. I will not extend that thanks to the content of his speech, which was very negative and did not really include any ideas or genuine points of debate about how to improve openness and transparency in government. I am very pleased that we have got the opportunity to talk about this. Indeed it is a subject that I will talk further on during the week.
The government are very keen to look at what we are doing to improve and increase accessibility of government information. We are very keen to look at the opportunities that changing technology provides us in improving and increasing openness and transparency in government decision-making processes. I think all of us understand the benefits of openly engaging Canberrans early in debates around policy and program design and the importance of performance reporting to support accountability in government. Indeed, the ministerial statement which I outlined today, despite the criticism of those opposite, clearly communicates to the community what the government’s priorities are and what actions will be taken to achieve the priorities and includes some very clear targets around measures of achievement and whether in fact we do say what we are going to do.
I have today through that statement committed to regular and transparent reporting against these government priorities. The government is committed to a system of government that is transparent, open and in which decision makers are held
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