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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Tuesday, 10 February 2004) . . Page.. 70 ..

throughout our involvement in various committees, such as estimates committees and committees convened to look at annual reports, acknowledged or accepted the significance of this particular omission. Not a single one of us.

MR STEFANIAK (4.24): Actually, I think it might have been seven months, Jon. I will check that. It was very interesting to listen to Mr Stanhope. He said much about the debate in 1999 and the comments of then government ministers about responsibility, but said very little about what he has said in the past. Indeed, he has said very little to give us any idea of what he thinks should be a code of conduct for ministers. In fact, he has not produced a code of conduct as yet and the cabinet handbook makes no mention of his standards for individual ministerial conduct.

Mr Stanhope revealed in response to a question from, I think, Mr Cornwell that he had not had any conversations with his ministers or advised them of the standards that he expects from them. I think that shows a failure of leadership. He did advise Mrs Burke in an answer to a question without notice that he had told caucus, “Now listen you bastards, don’t stuff up.” I do not know if anyone can call that leadership. It is fair to say that, in government, setting standards for ministerial conduct certainly has not been one of his priorities. Indeed, it seems it probably does not even rate. He has not even set up a committee or spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire consultants to look into the issue or tell him what to say.

During his Labor leader’s address on 14 March 2001 when in opposition, Mr Stanhope promised that after 1999 an ACT Labor government would strenuously apply a rigorous code of conduct for its ministers. That would seem to be another broken promise. I hope he meant something a little bit more rigorous than “Don’t stuff up you bastards”.

Just over five years ago, in support of a motion of no confidence in Mrs Carnell over the hospital implosion, Mr Stanhope said:

…in evidence to the VITAB board of inquiry, the Chief Minister argued that ministerial accountability is absolute...That was said in sworn evidence. Pressed by the chair of the inquiry, Professor Dennis Pearce, about whether there were differences between government departments and statutory authorities, the Chief Minister said:

I suppose there are some differences, that the whole purpose of having statutory authorities does give them somewhat more flexibility than is the case in a department, but at the end of the day the minister is responsible...

Mr Stanhope then referred to the code of conduct which the previous government quickly developed and implemented. I quote:

The Chief Minister’s view was reinforced shortly after she took government in 1995. In April of that year the Chief Minister released a “tough new code of conduct for Ministers”, one that would form a “key part of the Liberals’ commitment to open government”.

Mr Stanhope went on to say:

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