Page 760 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2005
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the Chief Minister expressing why he thinks we should not be having this argument. We do not think Mr Bartlett’s comments on this are sufficient. We have Mr Hargreaves standing up saying, “The best defence is that I respect Tony Bartlett.” I respect Tony Bartlett as well. I spent time with him up on the fire grounds during the week preceding 18 January and I know what a good forester and great firefighter he is, but hiding behind Tony Bartlett is not having the debate.
We see more and more often that the Chief Minister is unavailable for comment. That says to me it is either because you are incapable of commenting or you are afraid of commenting because you know that the position you have adopted is indefensible. That is the problem here. What we are getting here today is indefensible, and we will get rolled by the government’s numbers. It is interesting that the Chief Minister chooses to do a little bit of backslapping and amend the motion. The motion is seeking information, it is about informing the debate. Later on we are going to have this debate on the Canberra plan, the Mick Gentleman special, the government’s pat yourself on the back, soak up a couple of hours of private members day with self-congratulatory motions.
In the Canberra plan they talk about being inclusive, they talk about listening, they talk about building the community. And yet when you get a motion asking the government to allow the community to be part of the further and ongoing discussion, all we get is, “Omit all words after ‘this Assembly’ and substitute ‘commends the government for its Cotter catchment restoration work.’ ” That flies against the spirit of the motion. Clearly, the amendment will get up, but the debate will not go away.
What you have said today has opened up more fronts and I think will give more concern in the community over your inability to listen, be responsive and act. Chief Minister, that is just arrogance. Your growing arrogance in the way you address these issues when they are brought to your attention is beginning to raise serious questions in the community about the way you govern this territory. There is concern out in the community. The government should not be saying to the community, “You are just wrong because we are the government and we are going to commend ourselves.” What you should do is allay those fears. The best way to allay those fears is to answer the questions and table the documents. If you are right, then the fears will go away. What are you afraid of?
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (11.33): I am not closing the debate; I am speaking to the amendment. This is the ACT ALP government’s standard amendment to almost every motion that is put up on private members day that in some way may be inconvenient for the government. Today we have something that is obviously inconvenient to the government, because we have a motion that may challenge some of the Chief Minister’s, the Minister for the Environment’s, assumptions or assertions.
If the government does not want to table the documents and does not want to halt forestry operations until it is reviewed by this Assembly, it should have the strength of its convictions and vote against the motion. It should not do this weasel wording thing that it does on every occasion to turn every opportunity into a backslapping exercise for the government, because self-praise is no praise at all; it is no recommendation for anyone. If the only people who can praise you are yourselves, you are in a pretty parlous state. On this issue, in the community there is a very large group of people who are seriously
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