Page 1773 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 June 1993
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This Assembly did not resolve that that amalgamation not take place. This Assembly did not resolve that we should not transfer responsibility for road rescue from the police to the Fire Brigade. I made it abundantly clear in my remarks that we would be proceeding with that change of responsibilities. Lest anyone be confused about my position and the Government's position, Mr Berry, later in the debate, said, "The decision will stand". We made it abundantly clear that we were proceeding with that decision. Mr Moore, who supported the call for an inquiry, made it abundantly clear that his support for an inquiry was conditional upon its being forward looking. Indeed, he said that he had had some negotiations with Mr Humphries in relation to the terms of the resolution in order to come to a resolution that Mr Moore felt comfortable in supporting.
Mr Stevenson, the Assembly resolution did not call on me not to proceed with that transfer of responsibilities. The transfer of responsibilities was announced, you say in your motion, on 10 June. We announced this decision weeks and weeks ago. The decision to transfer responsibility for road rescue from the police to the Fire Brigade was announced before the Assembly debated the issue. Mr Humphries clearly wishes that that decision were otherwise. He is making a political issue of this. He put forward a motion in this Assembly. There was clearly some negotiation with the Independents on the form of the motion. The motion did not call upon the Government not to proceed with the transfer of that responsibility.
I would accept that, if I had acted contrary to a resolution of this Assembly, I could expect a motion of censure. But, Mr Stevenson, I have not acted contrary to a resolution of the Assembly. I may have acted contrary to what you would wish me to have done, or what Mr Humphries may have wished me to have done, but I have not acted contrary to the resolution of the Assembly. The Assembly required an inquiry to be held. I have today announced the person who will be conducting that inquiry. It is Mr Bruce MacDonald, who is a very well-respected former secretary of Commonwealth departments and then Administrator of Norfolk Island, a person of long experience in public administration in this Territory, of high integrity and of absolutely no connection with the Australian Labor Party. He is a person whose probity I do not think would be challenged by anyone. He has been tasked with conducting the inquiry. The inquiry has the terms of reference as set out in the Assembly motion.
Mr Stevenson's motion of no confidence is fundamentally flawed because it is based on a premise that I have somehow disregarded a resolution of this Assembly. I have not. I made it very clear that we were proceeding with that amalgamation. If this Assembly had wished that transfer of responsibilities not to proceed, it need only have moved a resolution to urge me not to do it. It did not move that resolution. Mr Humphries's motion was not cast in those terms, and I suspect that that is because he needed the support of some Independent members. Mr Moore is the person who first, years ago, raised this issue about the need for avoiding duplication between the fire and police services.
I, for quite some time, was supportive of the proposition the Alliance Government had originally moved into of not rationalising these two services. I accepted that we should continue to have two road rescue services, and I had arguments with Mr Moore about this over preceding months and years.
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