Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3507 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

The minister will no doubt get up and say, "I am just implementing a decision of the former government."Maybe he is, and maybe he is not, but that is not the point. He was asked to do something new. He was asked to negotiate, as more work had been done, as more information had come to light from the community's opinion.

The community asked its elected representatives-the crossbenchers and the Liberal Party-to put a message forward from them. The community said, "Okay, you sold it, but we think the decision should be reversed. We think something should be done to save some trees that we, as a community, value."The debate moves on. The members in this place-the majority of them, unlike the minister, having listened to the community and reassessed what had happened before-determined that they would pass a motion that called on the minister to negotiate.

The censure is not about the previous land sale. Indeed, the censure is not actually about the trees. The censure is about the minister's failure to acknowledge that he has an obligation to carry out, where possible, the directions of the Assembly. He did not even attempt to carry it out. He blithely ignored it and said, "I am above you. I am above the majority of the elected representatives in this place, representing the people of Canberra. I don't have to do what you tell me to do."

I think the reality and tradition of Westminster, and the reality and tradition-although you might not like it-of minority governments is that you should do what is requested of you. To do otherwise results in these motions which lead to censure. We will watch and see what the minister does in the coming weeks, to see where it goes from here.

It is a very simple point. It is about who is responsible for carrying out what the executive does, but it is also about who is responsible for carrying out what the people want. It is the will of the Assembly that determines what the people of the ACT want, as we are their elected representatives.

Eight Labor, six Liberal, a Green, a Democrat and an independent make up this Assembly. Nine of those members voted in favour of the motion that the government should negotiate. It is not onerous and it is not hard. It is something that should have been carried out between the last sitting week and this sitting week, simply because it was what the Assembly asked.

We come down to a fundamental issue here, Mr Speaker: who is in charge? Ultimately, it is the Assembly that is in charge. The Assembly elects a Chief Minister and the Chief Minister appoints the ministers, through the warrants he issues for them. It is the Assembly that empowers the government-through legislation, appropriation and terms of reference to do its job. It is the Assembly that empowers the government. In this case, it is the Assembly which also directs the government to negotiate over the future of certain trees.

It was a very simple request. It is not hard to get on a phone to ACTPLA and ask, "What are the options here to swap? How do we carry out what, ultimately, the people of Canberra have asked us to do?"It is not hard to do that, Mr Speaker. You have been a minister. You know how easy it is to do that. We have a minister who did not even try.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .