Page 1666 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
But the Minister is responsible for the acts of the civil servants. Mr Deputy Speaker, it is no good trying to sheet the blame home to civil servants, anonymous or otherwise. It is no good having Mr Bissett held up in the public mind as the scapegoat. The public sees that after this chaos Mr Bissett's head seems to have rolled while the Minister's bottom remains in the ministerial chair. Mr Deputy Speaker, it is this Minister who is responsible for the maladministration, not a civil servant.
This motion of censure moved by Mr Berry today is a most serious matter and is deserving of some form of serious defence; but we have had none, apart from this bizarre notion that ministerial responsibility in the Alliance Government operates only if the Leader of the Opposition has, in fact, drawn attention to the defect of administration. Well, as we say, if this Government thinks that the Opposition needs to oversight every point of administration, we would be happy to do that. You can start sending your departmental correspondence to the Minister's office through our office for checking. It would probably be a good thing. We would not have two letters being signed on the one issue and a Minister unaware of it.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a farcical and laughable defence. It is not a valid defence. The Minister is responsible for the acts of his department. There has been financial chaos in his department and that Minister is responsible. No matter how much he squirms, no matter how much he tries to put the blame elsewhere, Mr Humphries squarely is answerable for the mess that he has produced in the health system.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.21): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think it is time that we reminded ourselves of the wording of this motion. It is:
That the ACT Legislative Assembly censures the Minister for Health, Education and the Arts for dragging the ACT hospital system deeper into crisis through his failure to implement reforms identified in December 1989.
This motion calls upon the Assembly to censure Mr Humphries for taking this hospital system "deeper into crisis through his failure to implement reforms identified in December 1989". The point I make clearly is that Mr Berry, in his motion, has defeated his own case. He is saying in his motion that the system was in crisis, and that was identified in December 1989; and his only complaint against Mr Humphries is that he has dragged it deeper into crisis. That is what the words say. It must follow logically, and that is the most - - -
Mr Connolly: Mr Berry identified the problem. You have done nothing.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .