Page 4317 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 20 November 1990
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known it for over a year. It was in last year's Estimates Committee report that was accepted by this Assembly. There is no excuse for that. It denies full accountability.
I would also like to comment on some of the areas in relation to which I believe this year,s Estimates Committee was not given full information. Again, the main point in commenting on that is that it tends to stifle accountability. It obfuscates the facts so that either members have to search high and low to find the facts or the facts never come to light. That was definitely the case in relation to the information on planning and school closures, the provision of staffing at Jindalee Nursing Home, and this Government,s failure to spend money on new policy proposals which were approved in the budget last year.
In all of those cases we had initial attempts to mislead the Estimates Committee on those matters. It was only by the endless cross-examination by members of the Estimates Committee that the facts in those cases came to light. What do we have? We have Mr Collaery complaining about the time that it took to get those facts. Mr Speaker, given that the role of the Estimates Committee is to examine such matters, I think Mr Collaery's response is totally inappropriate.
I believe also that Mr Collaery has cast himself well and truly in the Bjelke-Petersen mould by his constant threatening of court actions against members who ask him to supply the information. That is an outrageous way to behave. It was made an art form by Mr Bjelke-Petersen. Whenever anybody seemed to be getting some unpalatable information on him and his Ministers he threatened court action. That is what Mr Collaery is doing.
Mr Collaery: Have I issued one writ, Ms Follett?
MS FOLLETT: My comments relate to threats, Mr Speaker, by this Attorney-General to sue people who wish to ask him to explain himself on important matters of public expenditure. It is a Bjelke-Petersen mode of operation.
Mr Collaery: Name a letter or a writ, Ms Follett. That is the challenge. Let the record show it.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I say again that my comments relate to threats, in which Mr Collaery specialises. In my regrettably very quick look at the Government,s response on this matter a couple of areas concern me.
The first is in relation to recommendation (1) of the Estimates Committee, which relates to the provision of financial information at the subprogram level. It was clear to anybody who took part in the Estimates Committee process that that is the level of information that is required. It was the first recommendation of this Estimates Committee, just as it was of last year's
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