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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 772 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

We have the numbers". This censure motion is about No. 17 since this Opposition took over as the opposition. There seems to be one a day, or one a week at least. They say, "Let us debase the value of this Assembly and the censure motion by putting one on because it might make the ACT's answer to Tony Blair look a little bit more like Tony Blair". Well, it will not, because attempts to censure us by members opposite are like being smacked on the wrist with a moist tram ticket. They are playing politics. That is all they are doing. They do not care about the future of the ACT. They do not care about the future finances of the ACT. I say to them, "You continue to play your politics, and we will fix the problem that you left us".

MR WOOD (11.39): Mr Speaker, what a lot of nonsense that was, and in particular the tirade of gobbledegook in the last two minutes. It was nothing more than that. It was a remarkable speech by Mr De Domenico. He began by asserting that Opposition members had not read the report. We have, of course. It is a fairly clearly written report. It is a short report. It is easily read and easily understood. Despite the protestations of Mr De Domenico and Mrs Carnell, it is a very clear report and it is highly critical of this Government's administration in Health, beyond any doubt. Mr De Domenico claimed to read from the report, but he misread that report. More than that, he misrepresented the report, and I think that is a grave sin from a Cabinet Minister.

Let me go back and tell you what he said. Early in his speech he quoted from page 3 and he inferred from that constantly that the Auditor-General acknowledges that there will be savings down the track. It was not the Auditor-General who said that. The Auditor-General was quoting what management said; he was reporting quite fairly what management said. I read from page 3:

Management also commented that over a period of years, it could be expected that changes in medical practices will produce significant benefits.

Management said that. Mr De Domenico tried to present it as the Auditor-General having said that, and Mr Domenico was quite wrong, seriously wrong, in doing so. That, frankly, was the calibre of the whole of Mr De Domenico's speech. The Government's response from the two Ministers we have heard thus far has been very disappointing, but is typical and consistent with what they have done in the year and one or two months they have been the Government. "Oh, it is not my fault; it is never my fault; it is nothing to do with me. I got bad advice", says the Chief Minister, "They told me wrong things". Or she says, "The Auditor-General did not quite pick up the point". It is anybody's fault but their own. That has been a consistent thread of this Government over a long period. Mr De Domenico said the same thing - that poor advice was given. He said, "It is nothing to do with me; it is not my fault; it is the bureaucrats' or someone else's".

Let me pause on that point about bureaucrats. This is totally and completely Mrs Carnell's responsibility. They are her bureaucrats. She has turned upside down, tossed out, or thrown over the whole of our bureaucratic top structure. The people who are now giving her advice are not people who have been there for years; they are her people, her appointments, and her appointments alone. It is completely and totally her responsibility for those people who are now giving her advice. It is her administration.

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