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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3525 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

negotiate with the owners of the site at the corner of Nettlefold Street and Coulter Drive a land swap or suitable compensation to ensure the preservation of the magnificent trees on that site.

The motion moved was that the government negotiate. That was an expression of opinion by the Assembly, and certainly it was an expression of the opinion of the Assembly.

It was an opinion not shared by the minister, an opinion not shared by the government, and we made that point starkly and explicitly on the day. We, as the government, as the executive, are entitled to our opinion on any matter raised in this place, and we have discretion. We have discretion about whether we pursue this line or that line or, indeed, any line of action. That is the fundamental Westminster principle: that the executive undertakes the executive action. It is the executive that does, and the executive takes advice from and notice of a whole range of sources, including the legislature.

The legislature, of course, can bind the executive through a bill. The legislature has the capacity to bind the executive through the passage of legislation. I know of no other way, under the Westminster system-a system by which we abide-that the legislature can bind the executive. It does it through the passage of legislation, and the executive is bound. The executive is not bound by motions of the legislature. A motion of the legislature is an expression of an opinion. The executive does not have to accept the opinions of the legislature. That is how the Westminster system operates. That is the fundamental Westminster principle.

Today we have heard from the opposition about the operations of the Westminster system and the Westminster principles, and the principles that are fundamental are those.

Mrs Burke: Why have you changed your mind since being in opposition?

MR STANHOPE: I have not changed my mind.

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Burke!

MR STANHOPE: Mr Corbell made the point well. A number of points were well made. One is that this was your decision. It was a decision that you took, a decision that you now admit was wrong. It was a decision that was wrong, in your view, and you wish us to fix another mess that you made in government. It is another mess that you are asking us to fix.

Of course, when one reflects on that, there is a whole range of other issues on which one awaits the view of the opposition in relation to mistakes they made that they now admit to and would like the government to do something about. One awaits, in fact, a motion from the opposition, for instance, that the government reopen negotiations with the owners of FAI House to see whether we might do something about the outrageous rent that is being charged at FAI House, and whether or not that is a mistake to which the Liberal Party is likely to admit.

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