Page 2170 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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Mr Kaine has also refused all along to intervene, other than to tell us that he will make up $11m of the $17m blow-out from the Treasurer's Advance.
Real financial management has been the last concern of the Government when it comes to hospital redevelopment. The decision of Mr Kaine and Mr Humphries to close Royal Canberra Hospital at the Acton site was based on very simplistic thinking. There is some superficial appeal in thinking that one hospital would be cheaper to operate than two. But, even leaving aside the cost to the community, it now appears that this bungled decision, and the poor management since, mean that it would have been cheaper for the Government to keep open both hospitals.
Time and again we have seen evidence that the Government was rushing to close the Acton site - rushing to make the process irreversible. The Government's contempt for the community and for this Assembly is demonstrated yet again by Mr Humphries signing a $44m contract just as Mr Kaine sacked Mr Collaery and precipitated this no-confidence motion. To commit the Government to such a major and controversial contract when the Government may have been about to fall was a very cynical move.
The commercial lease decision is another example of financial incompetence and betrayal of the public interest. The Government's decision to stop charging a premium for the renewal of commercial leases will hand many millions of dollars to large commercial interests. The decision has substantial implications for the Territory's revenue - implications which grow in future years as the number of commercial lease renewals increases. The most extraordinary fact in this sorry saga, and the best example of the Government's incompetence, was Mr Kaine's acknowledgment at question time last week that the decision was taken without any knowledge of the financial implications. They did not even bother to ask. It could not be clearer that this is a government which operates in the private interest of some, not in the public interest.
The examples that I have outlined, of schools, hospitals and commercial leases, show the truth about financial management by this Government. When these matters have been raised in the Assembly, Mr Kaine has failed to accept financial responsibility himself, or to require his Ministers to conform to normal standards of responsibility. This is not the kind of government we can afford.
I ask members to have a look at the alternative governments they are offered here today. On the one hand, members can vote for a Kaine government which comprises three former members of the No Self Government Party, who have already changed their tune at least once each. Two members of Mr Kaine's Government have been convicted while they have been members of the Assembly. One of those members has remained in office as a Minister when he should have been sacked by Mr Kaine.
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