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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (30 June) . . Page.. 1813 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

The conduct of this motion so far, and the conduct in the media of Mr Stanhope is one of continual and deliberate misrepresentation. Mr Stanhope has alleged that the Government has engaged in criminal conduct. We have not. If we have we would have had that evidence. It would have been the first cab off the rank this morning. We still wait for the evidence. We still wait for the intent. As I have already said, their legal advice suggested it should go to the DPP. Well, why has it not? Mr Stanhope has simply peddled innuendo and misrepresentation as fact and hoped that some of it would stick. It is a testament to the grubby depths to which the Labor Party will sink when this motion is being debated.

The Labor Party has also attempted to describe this as a secret deal. It has accused the Government of using a shady deal to hide the Bruce transaction. This is absolutely laughable. It is in the annual reports. The Chief Minister has spoken of it. Not only did the Auditor-General go over the accounts last year, but so did Mr Quinlan's own committee. The expenditure was accounted for and disclosed in a number of places. The documents are that secret that the rest of the world calls them annual reports.

Mr Speaker, this is about chipping away. When you live in a policy vacuum you just continue to do silly things like move censure motions and motions of no confidence. We saw that earlier in the year. On the day of days for the Leader of the Opposition when he gets a free kick, when he gets to deliver his budget response, what happened? Mr Humphries was attacked in a surprise no-confidence motion. Mr Speaker, we saw that no-confidence motion fail as well. The Labor Party, quite clearly, is willing to continue with this recklessness and to treat truth very lightly.

Mr Speaker, this motion is simply about power. It is about obtaining power at any cost. It is like fairy floss. It is based on a single grain of truth, a grain of truth that we have never denied. When it became apparent that the Act had been breached, we owned up and the Chief Minister apologised. This is fairy floss. It is based on that single grain of truth that the guideline was not signed. The grain of truth has been whipped like sugar. It has been fluffed with innuendo and misrepresentation into a lightweight, unsustainable fairy floss. It is an argument that does not stand up to any heat. When the heat is applied to this, their argument dissolves because there is no argument. They are yet to prove that we intended to do it; they are yet to prove or show anybody any evidence that we connived to do it.

It is disappointing to have to stand here and go through this no-confidence motion today. It damages the standing of the Assembly and all the politicians in the eyes of the community. I think it also has an effect on people's confidence in the ACT. I think it has an effect on the future of the Territory.

Mr Speaker, malice and politics will always find bad motives for well-intended actions, and we have seen that today. What we are seeing here is the lowering of a bar. Mr Wood talked about the bar being higher. You know, the bar has gone up since the other no-confidence motion. Mr Wood said, "We are setting it right up here because this is really serious". Mr Speaker, a Cabinet decision was made. It was made legitimately. A legitimate desire of Cabinet would be put into operation. There was no direction to break the law. There was no need to break the law because we could have achieved it through the Cabinet decision.

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