Page 1597 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Executive Deputies - Committees
MR CONNOLLY (6.03): Regardless of comments about snouts in the trough, as I said the other day, Residents Rally policy has never stood between a Residents Rally member and a ministerial car. It was interesting that there were references yet again today to this vexed question of the position of an Executive Deputy chairing a committee. It is an issue that we continually return to. We have stated a case that is set out in some legal detail and some complexity in the committee report tabled today and in other committee reports. The simple proposition is that a committee chair must be seen to be not part of the executive government. We on this side of the house accept that Executive Deputies do not form part of the Executive of this Territory. They not only must be, at law and in truth, not part of the Executive but also must be seen to be not part of the Executive.
This Executive Deputy, Mr Jensen, seems to bend over backwards to be seen to be part of the executive government. It has got to the point where he sends out letters to constituents on a letterhead which says "Australian Capital Territory, Office of the Chief Minister", and signs them "Norm Jensen, Executive Deputy assisting the Chief Minister on the Environment, Land and Planning". I ask you, Mr Speaker, and members: Does it convey an impression that Mr Jensen has nothing to do with the Executive when he writes on Office of the Chief Minister letterhead and signs himself "Executive Deputy assisting the Chief Minister"? The clear intention that is conveyed by this letter is that Mr Jensen is in some way exercising ministerial responsibility, in some way assuming the role of the Chief Minister, and in some way entitled to speak for the Chief Minister, to the point not only of the title but also of the letterhead.
This week we on this side thought that we had seen a ray of sensibility from the government benches. When the ABC wanted to speak to Mr Jensen on school closures - a controversial issue relevant to planning and one very close to the Residents Rally policy - Mr Jensen said that he could not speak. He said, and I quote what Julie Derrett said on 14 April:
... he wasn't able to do that, saying that he -
that is Mr Jensen -
was the chair of the planning committee in the ACT and that this matter may be referred to that particular committee and he felt that it would be inappropriate for him to comment at this stage on the proposal to sell school sites.
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