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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 5 Hansard (3 May) . . Page.. 1503 ..

Labor government document

MR BERRY (6.50): During an earlier debate about Gungahlin, Mr Humphries was on his feet talking about a document that he knew the contents of which he was not able to see. He gave his description of the contents and then, curiously, said to the chamber, "I can arrange for you to get a copy of it." I do not know how you would arrange for anybody here to get a copy of it, because I do not think there is anybody entitled to see it.

Mr Smyth: Yes, there is.

MR BERRY: I do not think there is anybody. I am not entitled to see it.

Mr Humphries: Mr Stanhope is entitled to see it.

MR BERRY: I do not think Mr Stanhope is because he was not the minister concerned with the matter in that government. You would have to talk to the members who are ministers of this place to get their approval before you can start waving this sort of stuff around. It is a very curious thing. In any event, you will have to rely on my interpretation of it because I was there. I was the cabinet secretary and I knew what the Labor Party's position was. The Labor Party's position was to build at Gungahlin. As soon as you got yourself in there, you made sure that it happened somewhere else.

Mr Smyth: If that's the position, then table the document. Prove it.

MR BERRY: You cannot table the document.

Mr Humphries: Well, you should.

Mr Smyth: You can.

MR BERRY: I cannot. I do not even have access to it. I am not a member of the executive. In any event, I am telling you what the Labor Party's position was, and that is the last word you will hear from me on it. I was hoping Mr Moore would hang about for a while. I was going to raise the issue of a plaster cast on a constituent's arm. He still has not told me why the hospital does not provide the high-tech versions of these plaster casts. I have said to him that I am going to keep raising the issue until I find out. So I say that again.

Now that CTEC have signed the contract with the Canberra Airport Group at Brindabella Park, I wonder if the minister responsible, Mr Smyth, would now agree to provide members of this Assembly with those documents in their complete form, documents which he refused to supply to members before the contract was signed. I am not interested in seeing the contract being tabled in this place; I am told it is on the Net somewhere. That is not what I am after. I want to see the documents that were the subject of a motion which was passed in this place, which the minister at first said he would provide and then did not. Now the contract is signed, let us see them in their complete form. I will test you with that one-and it is not over yet.

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