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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3934 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I could go on for a long time. I have attempted to talk just very briefly about the pretty wonderful things that we as an Assembly have already done and that I have had the pleasure to be part of. I have spoken about making our budget work - we now have a budget in surplus; having the lowest unemployment rate; having jobs for our kids; having a sustainable business sector; and having a bit of oomph and guts in this city to go places, to be different, to be world - leading. It is really exciting.

I have also spoken about the challenges that still exist. We will not be able to face these challenges if this Assembly slips into the sort of pattern we have seen today and over the last little while of being negative to everything, of opposing everything and of not working together or trusting one another. Mr Speaker, this certainly will not happen if we do not share a vision of a better society, a society that achieves the very special things that Canberra and Australia's national capital can achieve.

I would like to finish by speaking about something that I am sure will surprise some people. This Assembly needs to address the question of ministerial responsibility. People may laugh, and maybe I should not bring it up but I am going to. We saw again today what the problems are. We are a minority government. Today we saw a scenario where Assembly committees were saying that they and not the government would decide what inquiries they undertook. That is fine if that is the approach they want to take. But at the same time they are saying to government, "We won't accept your approaches or your responses to our committee reports. You have to do what we tell you." Mr Speaker, who is responsible under those circumstances if things go wrong? Is it the minister, the Assembly or the committee?

We have seen some interesting blurrings of responsibility with regard to the disability inquiry where the minister and the government made clear the approach that we believed was appropriate. But the Assembly took a different approach. That is fine but once the Assembly starts ordering ministers to go down a particular path, who is responsible - the minister or the Assembly?

Mr Speaker, that is not how the Westminster system works. It is certainly true that ministers are responsible for their portfolio areas but they have to be allowed to actually take that responsibility, to live and die by it. This Assembly continues to step over that line. I think that the Assembly has to think long and hard about what is meant by ministerial responsibility.

We have also had scenarios surrounding the Bruce Stadium issue where I, as the minister, was held responsible for issues that happened within the department. If a line is not drawn in the near future this matter will come back regularly to haunt whoever is in government and undermine the credibility of the Assembly.

Mr Speaker, I will conclude by thanking my staff. Simon and Ian - maybe particularly Simon because he is leaving with me - have been absolutely wonderful. They have been my right hand. They have lived and breathed through some really tough times and have always been there for me. All of my other staff - Keith, Megan, Adam, Trisha, Gary, Annette - have just been wonderful. I have been extremely fortunate to have had people who have not just been great staff but great friends. And that runs to the DLOs as well. It is just great to have people who are now good mates.

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