Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1807 ..

The Chief Minister now pleads with us to accept that he cannot remember perhaps one of the most significant telephone calls of his career—so you don’t think it was significant, Chief Minister?—from the head of the department of emergency services on the morning of the worst firestorm to hit the Australian Capital Territory in living memory, because he was under pressure.

Also, he now asks us to accept that he had no understanding, or was never briefed, on one of the most serious cases of neglect regarding the legal reporting requirements of child abuse in the ACT’s history. We in public office have a responsibility to remember, not forget, these sorts of issues. We owe it to the community to provide strong and honest leadership. More importantly, we have a responsibility to provide strong leadership when under pressure.

In conclusion, this Chief Minister has poor form and has failed this Assembly, the Canberra community and, most importantly, the fire-affected people in this city, who deserve to have answers, not memory loss and obfuscation. His “I don’t recall” excuse is nothing more than unacceptable and unconscionable. It is now well documented that a telephone conversation did occur. The fact that both he and the CEO of the emergency services department do not remember is, to say the least, very worrying, not least of all for the two men who are fast becoming known as the children of Carmen Lawrence.

The fact is that this Chief Minister has misled each of us and, further, has failed to provide leadership with regard to child abuse claims and the matter before us today, as others mentioned today, by avoiding his responsibility, by allowing other people to take the fall for his mistakes and bad judgment and by misleading people. This Assembly and every Canberran must ask: can we trust this man? Can we afford for this sort of thing to happen again? The answer, in my view, is a resounding no. We in this place must ask: did the Chief Minister mislead the Assembly? The answer must be yes, on the evidence provided. As a consequence, the Chief Minister must do the honourable thing of accepting the punishment for his grave mishandling and stand down.

MS DUNDAS (3.14): Mr Speaker, I would have liked to have heard more from the government in response to some of the allegations made by the opposition, but I understand that that will come later. I will speak on the evidence before me, then.

We have before us the question of whether or not Jon Stanhope holds our confidence to be Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. This question has arisen because the Chief Minister came into this chamber and admitted that he had misled us and admitted that he had misled the community.

This motion before us is a very serious motion and I think all members understand that, but we must remain focused on what we are discussing. I have agonised over this vote—over the different things that I have heard, the different evidence that I have picked up on, and all the different things that we could be considering.

When I consider what could have happened on 18 January, I get very sad and I get very angry. I get very sad and very angry when I consider what could have taken place on 10 January or 3 January, or over the past five years or 10 years, in terms of what has been happening in the ESB, what has been happening in ACT Forests and what has been

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .