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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1769 ..

Officer, Mr Murray, who then gave it over to the CFCO. At 2.45 pm the first indications of public warning went out. At 3 o’clock, Duffy burned.

Mr Stanhope has utilised the technique of being unable to recall to gloss over large parts of this story. But in doing so, he has misled this Assembly on multiple occasions. We now know that Mr Stanhope created a false impression from as early as the sitting day of 18 February 2003. On that day he said that he was first informed that a state of emergency might be needed after 2.00 pm on Saturday, 18 January. We now know that the matter was raised at a cabinet meeting as early as the Thursday before. Mr Stanhope misled the Assembly on 29 May 2003, when he claimed:

My first contact with an ACT official on the day of the fire was somewhere between—I’m guessing, I’m guessing this—12 and 12.30, when I had a telephone conversation with Mr Tim Keady, as I was driving to the Emergency Services Bureau; and that was my first conversation. I decided for myself to attend the Emergency Services Bureau.

That is simply not true.

On 21 August last year Mrs Cross suggested during a question that Mr Stanhope was advised in the morning about the state of affairs and the need for the declaration of a state of emergency. He denied that to the Assembly. On 3 March this year he responded to a question from me with this claim:

…the telephone call that I received from Mr Keady—which was the first contact I had with any of my officials on that day—was somewhere around one o’clock…

He went on to emphasise this point, saying:

That was the first contact I had with my officials on that day.

He gave the same false information to the coroner. He went even further with his claim that he went out to Curtin of his own initiative—given that we now know that he was briefed at 10.00 am, this remark is the height of cynicism—by saying:

I had a desire to be updated on what was going on—a desire that I generated. This decision was taken not as a result of any contact with any official but one that I made of my own volition.

I suspect, Mr Speaker, that you would not allow me to call that a barefaced lie, so I won’t.

MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that, Mr Smyth.

MR SMYTH: I withdraw, Mr Speaker. Mr Stanhope went on to say:

As a consequence of the fact that I was acting minister for emergency services on the day of the fire, I made the very obvious decision to ensure that I was briefed. I made the decision that I needed to be updated. I made the decision to seek that briefing at lunchtime.

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