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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 5098 ..

MR STANHOPE: Just wait for it, Mrs Burke, so that we can have displayed the full level of your incompetence and lack of understanding of these basic issues being pursued by your federal colleagues. Just listen to it, so that you will understand how absurd and nonsensical your question was and the level of ignorance it displays. The federal government-that is, the federal Liberal government-has advised all universities around Australia that its latest batch of reforms are tied to a range of administrative reforms, which it is seeking to force on all universities around Australia, going to the nature and structure and size of their councils. And just wait for it: as a result of this, the Chancellor of the University of Canberra and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra asked to meet with me specifically to discuss membership of the council and specifically to put to me the danger of filling all the vacancies. They asked me not to rush to fill the vacancies at the University of Canberra.

Mrs Burke: That's not what I heard.

MR STANHOPE: Oh, so you have spoken to the Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor of the University of Canberra, and they have actually contradicted the advice they gave me about vacancies on the council, have they?

Mrs Burke: They said they had spoken to you recently. You must have forgotten.

MR STANHOPE: They have contradicted the advice that they gave me, have they? And I wonder, have you spoken to Professor Chubb, the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University? Has he contradicted the advice that he gave me about the significant issues facing universities when they come to decide which members of council they will have to remove as a result of the so-called reforms being foisted on universities by the federal government? And I might just say, Mr Speaker, as a result of the interjections, I will contact the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra just to confirm that the advice that he has given Mrs Burke is inconsistent with the advice he gave me. If he has changed his mind since he spoke to me and he now puts a different position to Mrs Burke, well, I will take that up with the Vice-Chancellor and I will ask him why he is doing that, why he is actually going to the opposition and giving it different advice to the advice he is giving me.

Gaming machine legislation

MRS CROSS: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister as the leader of the ACT parliamentary Labor Party. Chief Minister, it was reported on crikey.com yesterday that the ALP struck a preference deal with Greens MLA Kerrie Tucker in exchange for-

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Cross, that is not within the Chief Minister's administrative responsibilities, so I will have to rule the question out.

MRS CROSS: Whom do I ask the question of? It is directed to the leader of the parliamentary Labor Party.

MR SPEAKER: You can't ask the question.

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