Page 3324 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
record hot temperatures in October of this year due to the fact that they are undergoing repairs.
Mr Mulcahy: Push them around!
MR STEFANIAK: That would be a bit hard in Namadgi, as there are some big hills there. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to realise that we are experiencing climate change. Temperatures are warmer. The bushfire season is going to be longer. We have had 299 millimetres or thereabouts of rain when we should have had about 450 millimetres by this stage of the year. The fire season is probably more dangerous in many ways than it was at the end of 2002 because we have had a much greater drought. All of those things should have been impacting on this minister’s mind.
I must admit that I was utterly amazed to find out that we are not light years ahead, that we still have these hugely significant problems in relation to the vehicle fleet, that we have these hugely significant problems in relation to basic things like communication and that we appear, again, to be underprepared for the fire season after all those warnings, after the December 2001 fires and especially after the January 2003 fires, especially after the detailed McLeod report and especially after the evidence given publicly to date in relation to the coronial inquest into those tragic fires of January 2003.
This motion is a censure motion, a no-confidence motion. Basically, it tells this minister that he needs to lift his game. Of all the ministers here, he should have knowledge other than just what his department gives him, because he is also a volunteer, and full credit to him for that. So I am surprised that we find ourselves in this situation. The minister has a problem here with the ministerial code of conduct. There are a couple of areas there where I think he is sailing close to the wind. On page 2 it says:
Ministers will recognise that they have an obligation to account to the Assembly fully and effectively for all money they have authorised to be spent, forgone, invested or borrowed on behalf of the Territory. Ministers are individually accountable to the Assembly for the administration of their Departments and Agencies.
So he cannot just say that he does not have the technical expertise et cetera. When a problem has been drawn to his attention, and this problem has been drawn to his attention for at least 10 days and there have been further issues drawn to his attention since then, he needs to take steps to rectify it, rather than just pretending that it does not exist and sweeping it under the carpet.
Page 10 of the government’s ministerial code of conduct deals with diligence and says—
Mr Mulcahy: Are you sure they have not deleted it?
MR STEFANIAK: They probably do not read it. I think that it is still there. Paragraph 5, halfway down page 10, says:
Ministers should exercise due diligence, care and attention and at all times seek to achieve the highest standards practicable in relation to their duties and responsibilities in their official capacity as a Government Minister.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .