Page 2204 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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Mr Speaker, I conclude by saying that I have a personal commitment to ensuring that this Government stays and provides to the community all the necessary and effective programs which Labor could never deliver. This Government, with Trevor Kaine as Chief Minister, has provided good, stable government. He and the Executive have taken hard decisions and acted responsibly. I will not be supporting the motion. Mr Kaine has my support as Chief Minister.
MRS GRASSBY (4.27): Mr Speaker, in speaking to this motion, there are a number of important points which need to be made concerning the administration of government in the ACT. For my part, Mr Speaker, I will concentrate on what I have perceived as the bad administration of the Department of Urban Services for the past 18 months.
It is worth mentioning the problems surrounding Public Works contracts in Canberra. To be sure, the Public Works contracts system has been a shambles for the past year and a half. This is why we were forced to raise the issue as a matter of public importance earlier this year. As we all know, the problem really came to a head with the R and G Shelley debacle. That debacle was important because it highlighted the flaws in the Public Works contracting system, and also because those opposite said that they would not allow such a problem to occur again. To fix this up, they said that they would implement a project management system.
Mr Speaker, this sounded wonderful; but, of course, this was nothing but an illusion created by those opposite in their ongoing pretence of being caring and responsible managers of the public purse. I can say this, because only a short time later we saw this Government's project management system tested, and we saw it fail this test miserably. I am, of course, referring to the Hunt Boilers dispute. What the Hunt Boilers dispute highlighted was the fact that the Government did not introduce the project management system as a means of improving the Public Works contracting system in Canberra. It simply introduced the system as a means of making itself less accountable to the process.
We saw the responsible Minister turn around during the dispute and argue that the problem was not of his making, and consequently was not his responsibility. He argued that his department had appointed project managers to manage the entire contract and consequently the subcontractors, the unions and the Labor Party should look elsewhere to blame someone. Mr Speaker, I need not tell you how this came as quite a shock to all those who were involved. Let me tell you that those subcontractors and I could not believe the Minister's argument. To be quite frank, Mr Speaker, I had to ask myself, "What is this Minister paid to do?". Certainly, he is not paid to delegate away his responsibilities. He is paid from the public purse to manage effectively and responsibly. However, it was clear to all at the time that there was no effective or responsible management from him.
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