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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1798 ..

that the Chief Minister exercised, and recognised the importance of, full and true disclosure and accountability to the Assembly. I have come back unconvinced. The fact is that the Chief Minister did not exercise full and true disclosure of the facts.

This lack of disclosure and transparency was not only in the Assembly; he misled the Assembly, there is no doubt about that. However, he did not exercise full and true disclosure of the facts to the coroner, Ms Doogan, to the media, to the community and to those who lost their homes and the lives of loved ones in the January 2003 bushfire disaster. If there is no doubt—and there is not as the Chief Minister freely admits this—about the fact that he misled the Assembly and, through it, the people, then there is no doubt that he also misled the coroner, the media and those who lost their homes and the lives of loved ones.

The Chief Minister issued a media release on 5 May 2004 with the headline “Stanhope regrets disruption to Assembly business”. In this media release, he states:

I continue to regret my lapse in memory and stand ready to be judged by my fellow Assembly members.

The Chief Minister is not being judged by his fellow Assembly members; he is being judged by the people of Canberra. And the judgment has come back calling for his resignation. The media has reflected this community opinion for the last seven days. My office and the offices of my colleagues—and, I am sure, the offices of the government—have received letters and phone calls from the community also reflecting this opinion.

There may be some members here in the Assembly who believe that this is too serious a punishment for a Chief Minister who has misled the Assembly and, through it, the people of Canberra for the past 16 months. However this is not something that the Smyth Liberals have done without consideration. The Leader of the Opposition moved a no-confidence motion in the Chief Minister for a very serious reason—misleading the Assembly and, through it, the people of Canberra.

In response, the Chief Minister has stated, also in his media release of 5 May 2004, that “he was prepared to stand by his conduct in all aspects of the fire”. If that statement is true, then he is obliged to stand down as Chief Minister here today.

The ministerial code of conduct states:

Being answerable to the Assembly requires Ministers to ensure that they do not wilfully mislead the Assembly in respect of their Ministerial responsibilities. The ultimate sanction for a Minister who so misleads is to resign or to be dismissed. Ministers should take reasonable steps to ensure the factual content of statements they make in the Assembly are soundly based and that they correct any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.

Today I believe that members of the Assembly need to exercise the ultimate sanction upon the Chief Minister and dismiss him from the role he did not fulfil. It was from the close of business on 17 January 2003 that the Chief Minister assumed the position of acting minister for emergency services. This role was not to be taken lightly, as Canberra was under threat in two major areas from bushfires burning out of control. Therefore, the role of minister for emergency services was the most important role in the activities of

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