Page 5206 - Week 12 - Thursday, 27 October 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
she says is backed up the resources of the government. That is particularly pertinent in regard to finances. It is important, because this action of putting out wrong numbers calls into doubt everything that this government says about election costings in the lead-up to 2012, and it must stop now.
This motion simply asks the Chief Minister to table all the government’s documents where they costed this promise—where they came up with the $10 million—by 6 o’clock today. I suspect we might not make 6 o’clock today and, with the agreement of the Assembly, if we are not sitting at 6 o’clock, I would ask that these documents be lodged with the Speaker’s office for distribution to all members.
I go back to the preamble of the ministerial code of conduct:
The position of a Government Minister is one of trust.
When government ministers speak, they speak on behalf of the government. They are backed up by the bureaucracy, and that is how people, particularly in this city, see it. They know that briefs are written for ministers. They know that information is provided so that ministers speak from a position of authority and a position of knowledge, and people take them at their word. The people of Canberra understand how this system works.
When the minister says, “This will cost $10 million,” people believe her, and they should be able to believe her. Well, we want to see the documents that come up with this $10 million figure, because our costings were based on the government’s own answers. If the government has provided us with one set of costings that come in at one value and they use a different set of costings to come up with a different value, then it calls into question one of the two sets of information provided—either the answer given on notice is incorrect and has therefore misled the Assembly or what the Chief Minister said last Friday is incorrect and she has misled the community. Misleading the community is a grievous sin that should be dealt with. Maybe we will have to come back and deal with it at some other time. Again I quote:
The position of a Government Minister is one of trust.
We should be able to trust those opposite. She should be able to back up where her claim of $10 million comes from. She should by close of business today be able to table those documents or, if we are not sitting at 6 o’clock this evening, I would request that those documents, with the agreement of the Assembly—I will move an amendment, a motion, if people want—be lodged with the office of the Speaker and be distributed to members then.
This must be nipped in the bud. People should be able to trust all of us in the lead-up to the election. There should be truth and honesty in these costings. It makes a farce of the draft bill that is before this place that if, on the very first occasion, we have ministers going out and misleading the press and misleading the community by making numbers up.
The way out of this for the Chief Minister is to table all of the government documents that she has that verify the $10 million number. I hope members agree with that. Then
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video