Page 2994 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 August 1990
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Mr Begg says: "He's ambitious". He has used a quote by Mr Collaery when he says:
I spend a lot of time with my bureaucrats fashioning the Government the way I want it ...
Mr Collaery has said that publicly, so who is in charge? Where is the Chief Minister's role in all of this? Mr Speaker, I think that that statement by Mr Collaery really says it all because this motion is about Mr Collaery taking more control and making the Government his own, making it the way he wants it, as he said.
The motion shows up the weakness of the Chief Minister who has been unable to stand up to Mr Collaery on this matter. If you remember back to Monday's Canberra Times, the day after, Mr Kaine is on record as saying that it would be politically damaging to his Government to seek to increase the ministry at this time, as Mrs Nolan has just said. I agree with both Mr Kaine and Mrs Nolan; it is politically damaging. It is an act of lunacy. Mr Kaine's view at that time was absolutely clear; the proposal was not on. Three days later, here we are with the motion. Here we are with Mr Collaery saying, when he introduced the motion, that there would be a unanimous vote on it. There will be a unanimous vote, yet the Chief Minister has said that he does not agree with it. Who is in charge? Put the lunatics in charge of the asylum. It is very clear who calls the shots in this Government, and it is not the Chief Minister.
If anybody still harbours the thought that Mr Kaine is in charge, I would like to refer you also to the Tuggeranong Valley View, dated 14 August. Under the heading "Cabinet Post for Valley?" it states:
Executive Director for planning and the environment, Norm Jensen, is poised to become the ACT Alliance Government's fifth Minister if the move gets Assembly approval this week.
The Tuggeranong Valley View was even ahead of the Chief Minister. Who the heck is in charge? Mr Speaker, it is quite clear that the Chief Minister has lost control of his Government, that he is being held to ransom by his Residents Rally colleagues. He was caught out well and truly in the Monday Canberra Times, because Mr Collaery probably had not even spoken to him.
Mr Collaery has hijacked the Government's agenda here. Has moved on with this motion, even though it is quite clear that members of the Government believe that it is politically damaging. In any normal government the head of government is in control of ministerial arrangements. That is obviously not the case with this Alliance Government.
The Residents Rally has succeeded in getting its 30 pieces of silver, despite Mr Kaine's opposition, and Mr Kaine is
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