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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 2 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 391 ..

The above discussion shows that the concept of ministerial responsibility ...

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. I accept that Mr Stanhope might want to talk about other things than the Gallop report. But the question was actually about the Gallop report. I would ask that he answer the question about the Gallop report.

MR SPEAKER: I think the question went to the issue of ministerial responsibility and I am going to allow the answer.

MR STANHOPE: On the point of order, Mr Speaker: the question went directly to the issue of ministerial responsibility. The question went directly to why it was I said that the previous government was responsible for issues in relation to the delivery of disability services. That was the very question that was asked of me and I am explaining the very notion of ministerial responsibility that the Leader of the Opposition does not seem to grasp.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, it was not actually about that. It was about whether the government was prepared to accept it misled the community by stating that the report is critical of the former government.

MR SPEAKER: If you like, I will go back to the Hansard and examine what you said. But my memory of it was that you were trying to draw attention to some notion that the government was not responsible-it was only certain individuals. I think the Chief Minister is trying to draw attention to that area of ministerial responsibility that goes with executive government. I am going to allow the response.

MR STANHOPE: Certainly it is pertinent. Thank you, Mr Speaker. It goes to the very issue of the previous government's responsibility for the findings of the board of inquiry into the delivery of disability services. It goes to the heart of it-that the government of the day must accept responsibility.

Because the current Leader of the Opposition was part of the government of the day-he was the Chief Minister and a minister for health in that government-he was responsible for the delivery of disability services in this territory for the last seven years. Now he is seeking to create a fiction that he is not responsible. "We were in government and I was the Chief Minister but we are not responsible. Let's blame somebody else. Let's point the finger at some public servants because we like to put the boot into public servants." This is an art form that the Liberals have developed over the last seven years.

You ran this territory for the last seven years. You ran disability services in this territory for the last seven years. You, Gary Humphries, ex-Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, and collectively the Liberal Party, are responsible. Accept your responsibility.

We go to the issue of the capacity of this party to accept responsibility. It was in that context that I quoted from the Auditor-General in relation to his report on the Bruce stadium. This is what the Auditor-General found in relation to the party's capacity, this Leader of the Opposition's capacity, to understand and accept ministerial responsibility. This is what the Auditor-General said about the now Leader of the Opposition.

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