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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Thursday, 13 May 2004) . . Page.. 1839 ..

he should go back and look at the practice of voting for amended motions, including no-confidence motions. It is interesting that his memory is so short.

In the debate Mr Quinlan said that this was just politics; that it was all about trying to improve political advantage. We are all politicians—you can read it any way you want—but the reality is that if it were just politics we would not wait 16 months to move this motion. If we followed the formula of the previous opposition led by the now Chief Minister, by this stage we would have moved two or three no-confidence motions, just for politics’ sake. And we have not done that. That needs to be on the record.

The reason is that we have waited for promises of the Chief Minister to be fulfilled. We waited for the McCleod Inquiry to leave no stone unturned. We waited for an answer to a question that I put to the Chief Minister—

Mr Quinlan: So it’s not about a phone call? Is that what you’re saying?

MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Quinlan.

MR SMYTH: He said that all my questions would be answered when he appeared in the coronial inquiry, and they were not. Last Tuesday we had confirmation that this place had been misled. It is rightly so—when misleading has occurred and it has been brought to the attention of the House—that the House make a decision as to whether it proceeds to give some voice as to how it feels about being misled.

What are we to make of a chief minister who cannot remember basic facts, events and conversations essential to his ministerial duty? Some conversations we do forget. We might easily forget the time somebody asks us, “How are you today?” But people generally remember conversations starting with “I love you”, “I’m leaving you”, “I’m pregnant” or “The city’s about to catch fire”.

Given that he spoke with Mr Keady and Mr Keady had come from a meeting discussing the evacuation of homes and the preparation for Lifeline scripts to be used on phone counselling and with Canberra Connect, how can we seriously believe his story?

I remember all too well what happened to me on that day. My day started at midnight, just like Mr Corbell’s did. He was at the northern end of the fire; I was at the southern end. The pair of us progressed through that night. We were relieved early in the morning to go home and get some sleep and to come back out again. I can remember the phone calls that I made that night; I can remember the phone calls I made that afternoon and the phone going off to say, “Come back to the shed; we need you now.” I can remember family and friends ringing to say, “What’s happening? We can’t get any information. It doesn’t make sense.”

The Chief Minister did not strike matches in the 2003 bushfires; he did not start the fires. But neither did he rise to the duties expected of him in a time of public emergency. We could say his failing is that he merely watched and fiddled while Canberra burned. But the truth is that he was barely watching and he did not do so much as fiddle. On that day he failed in his duty as Chief Minister and as acting emergency services minister in several respects. According to his account, he presided over a culture of poor communication between himself and his officials, who failed to inform him about

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