Page 4589 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 20 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I know that I have wounded Mr Berry on many occasions with the sorts of issues that have been raised and the questions that have been asked, but that does not excuse him from the accountability that he has to give to this Assembly. This is part of the Westminster system. I do not know whether he wants that system or not, if he had his druthers. But the fact is that he is a Minister under the Westminster system, and the principle of ministerial responsibility says that the Minister is accountable to the parliament.
A few other examples of obfuscation and of the refusal to accept that responsibility, I think, come to mind fairly readily. The Minister, for example, was asked some time ago to provide information to the Assembly about the number of expressions of interest in the private hospital project in Belconnen. The Minister answered a question on notice, saying that he would not provide the information; it was commercial-in-confidence. A number, mind you, is commercial-in-confidence! He obfuscated in question time repeatedly, saying that there was no interest in or demand for a private hospital.
I launched a freedom of information request to find out what the answer to this question was. I finally got that answer. There were, in fact, four expressions of interest in building a private hospital in Belconnen. Four expressions of interest was described by Mr Berry as there being no interest in or demand for the building of a private hospital. It is very strange - but, in fact, in another way, very understandable - that the Minister should decline to provide information about that.
Another example of the buck-passing that goes on in this Government is this: At a public meeting in Tuggeranong some months ago, I asked the Minister for Urban Services, who is responsible for the police, why it was that the system of distributing police car services - that is, operational bases for police services in the Territory - was so different from the very system that the Minister for Health operated for ambulances.
Mr Berry: Because they are two different services.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, they are two different services. I asked what the difference was between the two services - a quite legitimate question, I would have thought. Mr Connolly said, "I do not know. Ask the Minister for Health". So I did. In the Estimates Committee a few weeks later, I asked the Minister for Health why it was that the Department of Urban Services, or the police department, saw such a need for this particular system of distribution of police cars, and why ambulance services, with a similar kind of need in the community, operated on such a different basis. His answer was, "Ask the Minister for police".
Mr Connolly: No. He said why he does it one way; I say why I do it the other way.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .