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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 1285 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Let me put this to the Assembly: If members accept the premise that the two Ministers concerned, the Chief Minister and I, deliberately misled the Assembly, that we came into this place, so the argument goes, and told the Assembly that we knew this was going to go ahead; that we knew there were three leases in respect of this matter, when in fact we did not know that - we knew that there was only one lease over Hillview that Mr Whitcombe brought to the table for these negotiations - the question needs to be asked: What tactical or political advantage was gained by the Government in so deliberately misleading the Assembly?

Mr Corbell: The Government is just stupid.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Corbell sums it up. We were not just stupid but incredibly stupid under that scenario - to go and tell the Assembly something which the Assembly could find out quite adequately in other ways was not true. Mr Speaker, with great respect, members are asked to assume, in supporting this motion, that there was an extraordinary amount of stupidity in doing that. I am a lawyer, Mr Speaker. I am perfectly well aware that anybody can go over to the Land Titles Office and check on the nature of the leasehold.

Mr Corbell: Why did you not?

MR HUMPHRIES: I did not do that, Mr Corbell. That goes to the question of recklessness - not deliberate misleading of the Assembly. If it were possible to go and make that check - and I, as a lawyer, would be well aware of that - why would I deliberately tell the Assembly the contrary? It just does not make sense.

Mr Corbell: Because you were arrogant. You were arrogant and you assumed that no-one would check.

MR HUMPHRIES: The only basis for making that claim in this place is that we must have been incredibly stupid so as to climb into the vehicle of state and deliberately drive it over a cliff knowing we were going to head for a terrible smash at the bottom of it just for the sheer hell of it because we had no idea we were driving over a cliff. Mr Speaker, it does not make sense. It does not add up. To quote Mr Quinlan's remarks, the only logical explanation for what occurred is that we did not know what the status of those leases was and, at best, we recklessly misled the Assembly.

Let us put to one side what he is saying about deliberately. It just does not make sense; it does not add up. Let us assume that the basis for this claim is that we recklessly misled the Assembly. The basis, as Mr Stefaniak and Mr Smyth have indicated to the Assembly, for a claim that Ministers recklessly misled the Assembly would be that they knew or ought to have known that there was a different state of affairs to the one on which they professed to operate; for example, that they received warning advice from their department or departments and chose to ignore that advice and to press on regardless; advice which did not say expressly that this could not be done because, for example,

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