Page 4624 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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the government to do the work and then have a conversation about how to progress this.
I expect from the government that they will do a serious job of work about the options. I do not expect to see, when this comes back, a paper that says that it is all too difficult. In the conversation I have had with the attorney, and he knows that I am as good as my word, I said to him this morning: “I have a real problem with the notion of ‘direct’. My party room has a real problem with the notion of ‘direct’”.
But if the attorney does not do the job that he is called upon to do today, he will be back here and he will be censured. I reminded the attorney of the experience of the Nettlefold Street trees when he did not do what the Assembly told him to do and he was censured. I think that was probably about the last time a minister was censured in this place before yesterday. The minister knows, because I have already promised him, and I am promising here on the public record, that if a proper job of work is not done we will be back here to censure him for his failures.
That having been said, I think that we do need an appropriate time frame. I think it is regrettable that the government did not take up this job of work in June when the estimates committee reported on this. But I do believe that they need some time to deal with this.
I also have a reservation, as I have said, about the notion of directing. I cannot recall an occasion when anyone has directed the executive to do something. I discussed this with Mr Smyth, who has been here longer than I have, and he cannot recall it either. There have been occasions in the life of this Assembly where the Liberal Party has attempted to get the executive to do things and it was interesting that we got no support from the Greens.
After they committed to reopening schools during the election campaign, when it actually came to the crunch in this place they could not bring themselves to call on the executive to do such a thing. But here today, on Mr Rattenbury’s little pet project, we want to depart from the conventions of this place and direct, and I am not prepared to do that.
That said, the Canberra Liberals support improved accommodation for the community legal centres. We expect the government to do a proper job of work in relation to a feasibility study and I look forward to seeing that materialise early next year.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.29): I understand the points that Mrs Dunne is making in relation to this matter and I can assure Mrs Dunne that it would be the government’s intention to engage and, as I have already said, comply not just with the spirit but with the letter of the motion. But I think it is important to make the point that I cannot give any guarantees about whether there will be any subsequent action once those matters have been completed—that is, that there will be funding.
Mrs Dunne: I did not say that.
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