Page 1779 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 June 1993
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Can you imagine an inquirer in those circumstances coming back and saying, "Yes, I rather liked the work that the Australian Federal Police were doing on road rescue. It was high-quality work" - I have no doubt that an inquirer would find that that was the case - "it was work which provided a valuable service to the people of the Territory and it was cost effective"? If he found all of those things, no doubt he would then have been able to say, "It was a service that I would like to see continue". Unfortunately, it no longer exists. What is the point of an inquiry of that kind? For goodness sake, I know that governments tend not to want to appoint inquiries if they do not know what the outcome is going to be, but they at least adhere to the convention that they pretend that they do not know what the outcome is going to be before they make the decision; but not in the case of this Government. This Government has made the decision, signed, sealed and delivered it, packaged it away, and put it to bed - to mix my metaphors a bit - and it is now going to have the inquiry into whether it should have all those things done to it.
I have to ask myself: Is this Government really serious about wanting to examine issues of this kind properly? I must say that, as far as I am concerned, any inquiry into emergency services in the ACT with this issue gutted from it is a waste of time. What is the point of having an inquiry into emergency services in the ACT when there is no longer at the centre of this debate the issue which gave rise to it in the first place? What is the point in conducting an inquiry in those terms? The Minister might as well not waste public money and disband the inquiry right now. He should send Mr MacDonald back to where he came from because, really, there is not much point. You are covering again the ground of the Hannan report, very substantially.
I wrote to the Minister about three weeks ago and asked him for a copy of the terms of reference and the name of the person who was going to conduct this inquiry. I have still not heard anything from him, except what I heard today on the floor. It has been over a month since the Assembly made this decision. I would have expected that we could have proceeded a little further down the track than has been the case, but clearly now the reason is becoming apparent. The Minister has made a decision that the inquiry is of no importance. The inquiry might as well not take place. It is a waste of public money.
The Minister might also recall having told the Assembly that claims by the Opposition that the police rescue service was to be disbanded were scaremongering - we were beating the can, we were making false accusations, we were beating the old drum and getting people frightened. We have heard that again today. Is it not the case that last Thursday Assistant Commissioner Dawson announced that the Australian Federal Police's police rescue service was to be disbanded? Did he not say that last Thursday? The Minister does not look as though he is quite sure what he said, but I can assure you that that is what was reported in the newspaper. It was disbanding the service.
Mr Connolly: I said that months ago.
MR HUMPHRIES: You told the Assembly that it was not going to be a prelude to disbanding the service. I think it was Ms Szuty who put the question to you, "Is this a prelude to the disbandment of this service?", and you said categorically, "No". I think, Madam Speaker, that Mr Connolly has some questions to answer.
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