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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 2 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 403 ..

MR STANHOPE

Mr Speaker, we are now approaching this Government's fifth budget and it is yet to address in any rational way the fundamental problems of Canberra Hospital. The Government's failure at Canberra Hospital is only an example of its continuing failures in other budget areas. This Government has failed in its financial management of the Territory's legal system. The rabbit the Chief Minister pulled out of the 1996 budget hat was the sale and leaseback of government offices. The trickery may have helped the bottom line, but what of the result? In 1999 the Chief Magistrate, Ron Cahill, complains that 30 per cent of his budget goes into paying the rent on the building which we sold and which he is now required to lease. In the meantime the cost of justice in Canberra rises against national averages, as does the time it takes to go through the courts.

Mr Speaker, this debate, bizarre as its circumstances may be, perhaps by default goes to the heart of the way we see our Territory being governed. We all want a government providing quality services now and into the future. The question is how we achieve that aim. I really do not think that the debate on this serious issue is advanced at all by the Government coming into this place and standing up, as the Chief Minister has today, and telling us of the range of issues that we face. We know the range of issues. All Mrs Carnell gave us in her speech was a litany of the difficult decisions that have to be made in government, just a listing of the difficult issues and the difficult questions we all face, and yet we are devoting this day to this charade, this stunt.

To those on this side of the Assembly it is clear that we achieve it by having a government able to govern while it maintains the support of the majority of members, a stable government that reflects the will of the electors. As part of this process, we acknowledge the role of the crossbenchers in a situation in which we have a minority government. It is, of course, up to those on the crossbench to determine whether the consultation that they have with the Government and the resultant budget are to their satisfaction. These are issues for the crossbench. If the result is not to their satisfaction, they have the opportunity and the obligation to withdraw their support for the Government.

We, of course, also defend the interests of the community in this process. The community has the right to know the full extent of any negotiations and agreements reached between the Government and the crossbenchers. The community has the right to be protected from secret deals, from deals favouring sectional interests, or, as the Americans might say, from good old pork-barrelling. The crossbenchers must resolve for themselves the contradiction between a role in preparation of the budget and their responsibility to the community to hold the Government accountable for its budget and other executive actions. They must accept also that any arrangements entered into with the Government will be scrutinised.

The Labor Party in opposition will not play the game that the Chief Minister is here attempting today. Government in the ACT is about stable, effective and accountable administration. It is the Government's duty to bring down its budget and it is the Opposition's role to scrutinise that budget, to protect the interests of the community and to keep the Government accountable. That is a fundamental principle of responsible government, of the respective roles of the Executive and the legislature, and it is

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