Page 2854 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011

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back to this place when the minister tables those documents for debate, and if the minister can make the case then that will be a good thing.

If he can actually prove that there will be an enhanced outcome, if he can prove that there will be better fire mitigation, if he can prove that this will improve the response, if he can prove that it will protect the environment, I am sure people would agree with the reform. But let him prove it, because this is a minister whose record is not something that I would rely on. I commend the motion to the Assembly.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Ordered that order of the day No 2, private members’ business, be postponed until a later day.

Strategic and functional review

MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.20): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the consistent refusal of the Government to publicly release the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services; and

(b) the Chief Minister’s public pledge to introduce a “new era” of openness and accountability, as set forth in the ministerial statement concerning open government of 23 June 2011; and

(c) the successful motions of 10 December 2008 and 12 February 2009 calling for the tabling of the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services; and

(2) calls on the Chief Minister to table the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services in the Legislative Assembly by the end of this sitting day.

It is a pleasure to be moving this motion today, because it is an important motion. It is an important motion for accountability and honesty and openness in government. We have heard a bit about that from the Chief Minister recently.

We need to go back. In order to put some context around this, we need to go back to the previous Chief Minister. It was the previous Chief Minister who said that he was going to be more open, more accountable, more honest. And then he led a government, which Katy Gallagher was part of, which was one of the most secretive and closed governments we have ever seen.

We saw things like the Costello review, which is the subject of this motion. We saw the former Chief Minister saying, “If you want to blame someone, blame me,” when it came to the bushfires, and then attempting to shut down a coronial inquest because


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