Page 39 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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There is another example. I was at the Prime Minister's cricket match, not the Chief Minister's cricket match, and I was having a beer with some players from the Royals Football Club. They said, "Gee, we're looking forward to Bill Stefaniak opening his office out in Tuggeranong".
Mr Stefaniak: It was your office, Paul - $122,000 worth.
MR WHALAN: Hang on, let us hear the story. They said, "He has promised us a good afternoon". I saw them at the footy club on Saturday and they said, "Do you know what happened? We turned up, and Trevor Kaine had directed him not to have any grog, and it was a dry show". So they were stuck with drinking orange juice, and they were really annoyed. Gee, they were upset. But they are aware of the conflict that exists between Trevor and Bill Stefaniak.
These are the sorts of things that are starting to emerge. Mr Speaker, the most dramatic demonstration is the relocation of these Executive Deputies from the precincts of this chamber to the precincts of the Executive on the fifth floor. Today, if ever we needed it, we had from the mouth of the Chief Minister himself evidence of that particular point when he was justifying kicking Bill Harris off the fifth floor. He justified kicking the Chief Minister's Department off the fifth floor by saying "This was our commitment to the separation of powers. We were moving the bureaucracy and replacing it with members of the Executive". That is clearly evidence of what he has in his mind. It is confirmation of that.
The extra costs were dealt with by my colleague, but it is clear that one cannot avoid the fact that this particular bizarre arrangement is going to result in enormous increases in costs. But it will have certain advantages, Mr Speaker. These mutants are going to provide certain benefits to the four Ministers who claim to be the only members of the Executive because they will provide somebody to hide behind. When they make a mistake there will be someone to hide behind - the skirts of the mutants will be there for them to hide behind. They will do this in exactly the same way as today they sought twice, during question time, to hide behind public servants to cover their mistakes. Twice, once the Chief Minister and once Bill Stefaniak, sought to make cowardly attacks on public servants in order to conceal their own errors.
But, of course, the gravest concern in relation to this matter relates to the role of these executive members of Government on the Administration and Procedures Committee of the Assembly. This Administration and Procedures Committee of the Assembly is supposed to control matters that relate to the legislature, that relate to this chamber. The functions are very significant and they are set out in the standing orders in standing order 16A.
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