Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 3637 ..
MS CARNELL (continuing):
in the comments he made; but the coroner did not. The coroner said that an aspect of the tendering process had been corrupted. Does that mean that the process was corrupt? Nobody could perceive it that way.
To which bit did the coroner alert the Assembly? The bit to which he alerted the Assembly was when Gary Dawson asked me whether accepting a bid that was $50, 000 more expensive was appropriate or okay and whether it was okay, I think, for an out of town contractor. What did I say? I said, "Gary, we should not be involved in tender processes. It has to be done by the committee. Give it straight back". What did I say when I was giving evidence and I was asked whether it was appropriate for Mr Dawson to ask me that question. I said, "No, it was not appropriate".
What did the coroner say? He said that I had reacted to that in a totally appropriate manner. Remember, this is a no-confidence motion in me in my role as Chief Minister. The coroner said with regard to the contracting procedure that on the only bit that I had any involvement with I had acted in a totally proper manner. Heavens, what more could I have done? Nothing, according the coroner.
Another, shall we say, personal favourite of mine is Mr Berry's suggestion that the whole public event was somehow a political fanfare or some sort of stunt by me. Mr Speaker, again I quote the coroner:
It was suggested that the final date and the time of implosion needed to be adjusted to meet the personal convenience of the Chief Minister. It was argued this reflected some form of control. The truth of the matter is that the changing of the date was wholly inconvenient to the Chief Minister as she had planned to be absent from Canberra on a holiday on Sunday 13th July 1997 and which she had been planning for quite some time. Mrs Carnell was going to the Southern Highlands for a few days. Mrs Carnell was not consulted about the change of date until after the decision had been made to move the date. She was expected to fit into the revised programme. Any suggestion that this was a Kate Carnell stunt or staged event for her convenience as some form of political grandstanding is not supported on the evidence.
He is absolutely categorical on that, Mr Speaker. The coroner says that what Mr Berry said just a few minutes ago is incorrect, simply wrong. Mr Speaker, as I have demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt, all the claims made by the Labor Party since July 1997, including today, have been totally refuted, not by me but by the person who presided over one of the most comprehensive coronial inquiries in Australian history. I cannot understand how anybody can support this no-confidence motion.
There were also issues about the exclusion zone. Again, the coroner makes it very clear that it was reasonable for the Government to set the exclusion zone at the level that it did; that, on all of the information that was provided, the approach we had taken was appropriate. So you have to rule that one out as well.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .