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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 3042 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

In response to that the Chief Minister acknowledges that, through the cabinet consultation process in relation to the decision to enter into a sister city relationship, all ACT government agencies were provided with the opportunity to comment and that one of those agencies, the Department of Education and Community Services, had responded. It was quite worrying to me that that was the extent and the nature of the consultation response that attaches to this proposal. The ACT Department of Education and Community Services responded, saying this:

There were some other attachments to the Chief Minister's correspondence from a range of significant community organisations representing the Canberra community in a number of guises, very respectable and significant organisations, including support from the Multicultural Council.

I then asked the Chief Minister to give me further information on the extent to which the Commonwealth had been involved and the extent to which the Commonwealth had a view on this. In response to that the Chief Minister provided me with correspondence between herself and the Australian Ambassador to China. The Australian Ambassador to China was very supportive of the proposal, was most willing to be of assistance to the ACT, and indicated that it would be appropriate in relation to the development of the sister city relationship to focus on business and trade. He talked in significant praise and support of the proposal. But that was all.

There were just the two letters to the Australian Ambassador. There was no correspondence as such with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, although the Chief Minister in her speech indicated that there were a number of communications. I do not know when they were received or why they were not attached to the correspondence that was provided to me, and that is a pity. It reinforces my very significant concerns about how flawed this whole process and arrangement has been.

The government has been negotiating for three or four years, but none of us were advised of that and none of us were involved. At no stage along the path was there an attempt to take the Assembly with this proposal. If there was no attempt to involve either the Assembly and us as representatives of the people or the Canberra community, there was certainly no attempt to take along with this proposal the broader Canberra community, and I think that is a serious error and a serious flaw in this whole proposal.

It was not until the last month or so that the people of Canberra, the residents of this community, were appraised of the fact that this was even in the wind. There was no real prospect of genuine consultation or a genuine attempt to take the people of Canberra with the proposal. To the extent that there is a special feature or nature to assist a sister

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