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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1330 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

On looking at the information in front of us, I was inclined at one point to ratchet this motion up to a vote of no confidence, but I would want more time to consider all of the issues before I did that. I do not think we have had enough time to consider the issue before putting that sort of a proposal to the chamber. The proposers of the motion do not consider it appropriate at this time. It is something that I would like to have had time to consider, but that has been denied us.

On the issue of the affidavits that have been put before this chamber, I think a very good point has been made in the debate that only one affidavit has been put and not all of them. Indeed, only part of the evidence has been put, and not all of it. Mr Minister, that is another attempt to mislead this Assembly. You just keep getting in deeper but put selective pieces of evidence before the chamber. If you cannot put it all, do not put any. That is my view about those matters. That puts a particular untested set of evidence before this chamber which really ought to have been open to some counterarguments and arguments coming in another direction in order that people can make a decision in respect of this matter.

There is no question in my mind that the Minister set out to create the impression that nothing was wrong with the way that he was handling the SWOW situation. Clearly, there was a lot wrong. In that sense, I feel misled. I have had a look at the response to Ms McRae's question on 25 June. Throughout his response to that question, Mr Stefaniak attempted to create the impression: "You do not have anything to worry about here; we are just looking at some options". Clearly, the question that Ms McRae asked was about the closure of the School Without Walls. Mr Stefaniak parried that by saying, "No, we are not going to close it. We are only going to relocate it. But after we have gone we will have to shut the doors to stop the vandals from getting in". It gets to be a bit of a joke when these sorts of proposals are put in this place.

Mr Speaker, you cannot allow to stand a situation where a Minister is able to create the impression that everything is okay, hunky-dory, and then we have - - -

Mrs Carnell: He did not. He never did that. He did not ever say that.

MR BERRY: I will read what he did say:

Relocation of SWOW from where it is at present to Dickson College is an option that will be looked at as part of this review.

He also said somewhere in his answer, "It is hardly closing it". The fact is that it was always the intention of the department to close it. The department's advice was never challenged by the Minister. Therefore, clearly, the Minister knew what was in store for the School Without Walls. I do not think there is any question about that. I think the Minister was too smart by half.

If the goods on him were a bit better and I had the information in front of me, I would have no difficulty in ratcheting this motion up to a vote of no confidence, but at present I think the information in front of us is sufficient to find him guilty of an attempt to mislead us in relation to the entire matter of SWOW. I, for one, will be supporting

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