Page 605 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 July 1989
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Mr Speaker, Mr Fitzgerald, from a point of view, has not emphasised drugs in his report. There is a vast lack in the report of emphasis on the drug scene which of course is nationally connected. No real connections to the Sydney connections are drawn out, so far as one can deduce from the Canberra Times article on the Fitzgerald report, on those issues. Clearly, there are very large concerns remaining for prosecution in Queensland, which will of course lead into New South Wales and other parts of Australia.
The ACT must remain vigilant in that regard. The ACT is not a closed economy, and it is not a closed society. What affects, and what criminality operates in, other States and abroad could well operate here. That could not be any more timely than to think about the fact that we are establishing a casino on the recommendations of some people in this community without proper reference to whether organised crime has been seriously tackled in this part of Australia.
Mr Speaker, the redeeming feature of the Chief Minister's statement is, of course, that she commits her Government to open government and to dealing with corruption in all its forms. One hopes that as and if corruption is revealed in this Territory, from the highest to the low, the Chief Minister will move swiftly, with decisiveness and without fear or favour in that regard. If that is what the Chief Minister was telling us today, the Rally congratulates her.
MR DUBY, by leave: As a Queensland emigre I know I speak on behalf of the other Queensland originals in this house when I - - -
A member: Refugees.
MR DUBY: Refugees, that is right. One of them identifies himself continually as an ideological refugee from certain political forces in that State. All of us, I feel - I believe there are four of us, too - welcome the production of this Fitzgerald report on corruption in Queensland. The tragedy that occurred in Queensland over many years has its basis in the community's perception that the Government had no relevance to the general population and that the Government could take any action it liked without reference to the electorate being required.
I must say that sounds remarkably familiar to the 25 per cent of the Canberra population that had those feelings when this Assembly was established. I note the report's summary in the paper. I have not seen the report; neither has anyone else in this house, I believe. It is stated:
This report seeks to become a catalyst for continuing reform, by which public confidence in the administration can be restored and political processes improved...
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