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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 512 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

On the one hand, you have got Mr Stefaniak introducing legislation to give protection to the McLeod inquiry witnesses and, on the other, you have his leader rehashing a debate we had two weeks ago on which he was defeated and which he is running again because he did not get the profile or the recognition out of the last debate that he was hoping for to raise his non-existent political profile, which is what this is all about-cheap, tawdry politics.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister's time has expired.

MRS CROSS (11.25): This is the second attempt in as many sitting weeks by the Leader of the Opposition either to modify the terms of reference or to institute his own inquiry into the 18 January bushfires. Just in case we were in any doubt that the opposition is attempting a political beat-up over the bushfires, we need only look at today's notice paper. Already this morning, Mrs Dunne has spoken on bushfires, Mr Smyth is now speaking on bushfires, and the deputy leader, Mr Stefaniak, has introduced a bill about the bushfires inquiry. Mr Pratt, just for good measure, will also put in his two cents worth at the end of the day.

Mr Speaker, if I had not had the opportunity of once being a member of the Liberal Party room, I would just think that this was an area of public interest for the opposition. Four out of eight items on today's agenda from the opposition are about bushfires. They are what we call in this trade the opposition's theme for today. What is perhaps so disappointing about that is that the opposition is persisting in trying to make political mileage out of the 18 January bushfire tragedy.

Mr Smyth said earlier that this is about the truth, this is about learning lessons-a little like the pot calling the kettle black. Through you, Mr Speaker, I implore my former colleagues on the Liberals' front bench to allow the government to get on with the job of analysing the bushfires and putting in place the necessary measures for the bushfire season this year.

I am encouraged by the Chief Minister's commitment to work with Mr Stefaniak on Mr Stefaniak's bill. I think that that is very important. I think that we need to have more conciliatory work like that between the two major parties and I think that we can achieve much more than an adversarial approach to what has been a terrible tragedy in this city.

I will not be supporting the Liberal opposition's political theme for today.

MR STEFANIAK (11.27): Firstly, I address one of Mrs Cross's points and one raised by the Chief Minister about giving the Liberal Party a role because it did not have one in the fires. Mr Stanhope, the government played its role during the fires as the government, as we would have done had we been in government. Our role in the fires was to support the work of all the workers. Our members were out there helping in any way they could, not least my colleague Mr Smyth, who as a volunteer firefighter of 10 years experience was out there fighting the fires.

The opposition does have a role in mopping up after the fires and learning lessons from the fires. What we are doing, I am sure, would have been done by the Labor opposition had we been the government. It is the role of not only the opposition but this Assembly, and indeed society, to see how we can do things better. We had tragic loss of life, with

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