Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3335 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

about council-style government, open government, consultative government. How many times did we hear it in that election era? She could not open her mouth without having one of those three statements come out. We heard it again and again. Her perception was that that was how it should be done. That perception has clearly changed now that she is in power.

Mrs Carnell came into this Assembly last time we were here and said, "I have opened the futsal field on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin". That was the first, as I understand it, that any member had heard of this. We had actually seen some of the works going on as we had driven by. I presumed it was a modification of or extension to the car park that was there and made a note in my mind that I must ask what was going on there. Where does this appear in the capital works program? We had just dealt with the capital works program in the Planning and Environment Committee. Where does it appear in this year's capital works program? It is not there. What about the capital works program for the year before? Funny thing; it is not there. Yet we have this supposedly open and consultative style of government.

Why were we not consulted, Mr Speaker? Well, that is quite clear. It may well be that the response would have been negative; it may well have been that the people of Canberra and members of this Assembly would have said, "Sure, an international futsal field is an appropriate idea. It may well have been an appropriate idea for the Bruce precincts". In fact, if you ask me, that is exactly where it should be; it should be in the Bruce precincts, where we already have a number of outstanding sporting facilities. It seems to me to be a logical move. But, of course, the Chief Minister did not want to risk that because she wanted to push this through. What does that put a lie to, Mr Speaker? It puts a lie to Kate Carnell's promise of council-style government, open government and consultative government. They were the fundamentals upon which she went to an election, along with good economic management. We have seen that come under fire in the budget that was introduced yesterday. Those were the two pillars of this Liberal Government. It looks like both of those pillars are crumbling.

Mr Speaker, for the last 18 months or so that this Government has been in office, I have been reasonably comfortable about allowing the Government to make the sorts of decisions they need to make because there has been, generally, reasonable consultation. Let us take a positive example. Mr Humphries believed at one stage it was appropriate that we run a trial - and only a trial, I must say - of jet skis on Lake Tuggeranong. Was that snuck through and pushed straight in? No. There was a consultation process. It did not go the way that Mr Humphries thought it appropriate to go at the time - for a trial only. But the process had been open and consultative and had been consistent with the statement that the Government will be made more accountable to Canberrans by involving them in decision-making processes and by listening to their views directly. Did Mrs Carnell listen to the views of the people on futsal directly? No, of course, she did not. Why not? Because it was inconvenient; because it just might have come out with a different decision; because it just might have undermined her power base. Whilst I was prepared, perhaps, to trust Mr Humphries further with this, it is quite clear that we simply cannot trust Mrs Carnell with decision-making in regard to our lake foreshores and the lakes themselves.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .