Page 4180 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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the Chief Minister as Minister for planning. The document clearly explained the advice given to the education department.
Mr Jensen: You had it under FOI.
MR MOORE: Mr Jensen interjects that we had it under FOI. I had received it at lunchtime that day, under FOI. There was some question about that FOI anyway. The point that I would like to make is that Mr Jensen was very much aware of this document. I wonder how many other documents there are like this, which reflect on schools, of which he is also aware and which he is not sharing with us. I wonder what other advice the education department has been given by the Interim Territory Planning Authority or other planners that indicates things like:
Primary schools comprise the basic building block of most Canberra suburbs.
Mr Jensen: You had better read on.
MR MOORE: I read it all, thank you, Mr Jensen. One wonders what other information he has which would besmirch this Government with its secrecy and inability to be open in what it is doing. It knows that what it is doing is not right. From the sorts of things that Mr Wood pointed out, the action that the Government has taken and the action that Dr Kinloch bravely took in standing against this decision, it is quite clear that there are questions to be asked about school closures, and the answers will not come for some time because the documents no doubt will be buried. It is not the way to get the confidence of the people. The Government does not have the confidence of the people. It goes behind closed doors and makes decisions without people having the full set of information. It is even reluctant to provide information when it comes under FOI.
Mr Humphries: That is not true, Michael.
MR MOORE: There we are. You certainly were reluctant and slow. On that matter, Mr Humphries, I will just draw your attention to the fact that when the Chief Minister presented us with the information that the Government had from the planning authority we received it at 6.07 on a Friday night, and on that night the Estimates Committee finished sitting at 6.10. That is an appallingly cynical move and a shabby way for an Estimates Committee to be treated by the Alliance Government, and in particular the Chief Minister as planner. That gave us very little chance to ask questions about that document. As it happened, Mr Wood had a copy, and I also had a copy from about lunchtime onwards, so we directed a series of questions which related to it.
Mr Collaery: Bill had it from another source, and you know it. Tell the truth.
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