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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 3609 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

We have a number of Ministers who do not seem to know the difference between being politicians and being bureaucrats. They seem to think they are both. It is for this destruction of public administration and the totality of its disastrous consequences that I believe the Chief Minister should be held accountable - not just Katie Bender's death, not just the hospital implosion. I have mentioned the Kinlyside scandal, the Feel the Power scandal, the Futsal slab fiasco and the Bruce Stadium scandal. In any other State or Territory, any one of these failures of a public administration would have been enough to finish off the political career of the responsible Minister, but not in this place. I do not think we need to look too far to understand why that is the case.

I turn specifically to the tragedy of the hospital implosion. I will probably end up seeking an extension of time because, based on comments made by Mr Humphries today and by him and the Chief Minister in other places over a long period of time, I must use today as the opportunity to mount my defence for allegations and accusations that those people have made against me in this matter. I have not been given the opportunity to present that defence in another place.

Some time in 1995 or 1996 - even the coroner said he could not be precise about the date - the Carnell Executive decided to demolish the old Royal Canberra Hospital by implosion. It was always going to be a cathartic event, understandably, because since they or their children or their children's children had been born there, a very large number of Canberrans had an emotional attachment to the old building on Acton Peninsula. If there was one thing that the Carnell Government was expert at, it was devising ways and means to put a positive spin on anything, like demolishing the old hospital, which might have negative public relations consequences.

The demolition was to become a public relations event. Who was to preside over it? I will not give you any prize for guessing - the Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell. We know this from the evidence; this is not speculative. Over the period until that fateful day on 13 July 1997, literally dozens of pieces of publicity material, press releases, radio and television grabs and the like emanated from the Chief Minister's office. This was to be a high profile issue. If there was anything to be said about the project on Acton Peninsula, it was the Chief Minister, the Chief Minister's office or the Chief Minister's Department that was going to say it.

There is no dispute about this. It is all on the public record. It has been sifted over in fine detail by the coronial process and in countless media reports. According to the evidence that emerged, the demolition and clearing of the site were to be carried out by the responsible government agency, Totalcare, under the supervision of the Chief Minister's Department. It transpired that there was also a degree of supervision directly from the Chief Minister's office. More of that and associated matters later.

Those of you with any experience at all of public administration might reasonably inquire: If Totalcare was the government agency doing the job, what involvement did the Minister with portfolio responsibility for Totalcare, that is, the Minister for Urban Services, have? The Chief Minister, as is her right, assumed overall charge. That is clear. But what part does the Minister for Urban Services play, the Minister with responsibility, according to the gazetted machinery of government? For the period prior

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