Page 2733 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Mrs Dunne said, “We are the only party that have a way forward.” And guess what? The cavalry has arrived. F Troop. Captain—what is his name from F Troop? He has turned up. How about you get up now, Mr Seselja, and tell us how the Canberra Liberals have a way forward. Don’t tell us what we did wrong. Don’t tell us what we can’t do. You tell us what you can do. I can tell you now what you can do. What you can do is sit back. You are going to lose the next election; you just watch it. And I will tell you something else for free. I can tell you what you can do. You can do nothing for the people of Canberra.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (8.59): I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate, particularly after that enlightened contribution from Mr Hargreaves. It is always good to listen to his rants. I realise that I am without my notes but I am very happy to respond to some of the challenges and to talk about the Chief Minister’s directorate.
The reality is that we asked for a lot of information from the Chief Minister and the Minister for Economic Development about this government office building, and I have to say the information was very difficult to extract. This government was doing its best not to answer questions. In fact, when we asked questions in Chief Minister’s about the government office building we were told that we would get the answers in LAPS. When we asked LAPS they did not know anything. They said, “What we will have to do is bring in the consultants and maybe they will know something.” Then the consultants came in and, at the end of that process with the consultants, that was when Treasury finally decided to bring together some numbers for us—at the end of that process.
That gives you a reflection on just how secretive the government has been about its government office project. There is no doubt that as we dig more, we will find more issues and more problems with this government office building.
I did want to speak a little about the Hawke review. In regard to the implementation of the Hawke review, I have said on the record—and I have said this to Dr Hawke—that I think there are some good things in what Dr Hawke did. But I have also said on the record that the structure that the government puts in place should not be seen as in any way the panacea that the government believes it will be.
Putting a new structure in place is not going to stop the kind of stuff-up that we saw in regard to the north Weston ponds. It is not going to cause governments to not make dumb decisions like a one-lane GDE. It is not going to stop them building fire sheds that do not fit trucks. It will not do any of those things, the structure. Culture and leadership are what is needed, as is putting the best people in the best positions to ensure those sorts of things do not happen.
When it comes to the Hawke review, yes, Dr Allan Hawke is a man I have personal respect for. I think that he has done some good work there. But the government, I think, is holding on to this Hawke review as if it can fix its problems. It cannot. The one ACT public service will not fix your problems. It may end up being an improved structure to what we have at the moment. Time will tell. But it is about culture, it is
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video