Page 22 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 February 2007
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Let us consider Mr Stanhope’s proximity to this matter. Unlike Kate Carnell, he knew. Coroner Doogan found that, from as early as 13 January, government officials, including Mr Stanhope, knew of at least the possibility, that turned into a probability, that turned into the inevitable, that the fires would get into the urban areas of Canberra. Coroner Doogan, an experienced magistrate, a finder of fact, after assessing the evidence of the 16 January cabinet meeting, a meeting of which senior government officials at the time had very vague recollections but at which more junior people did take notes, found:
On Thursday 16 January, two days before the firestorm hit the suburbs, the Cabinet generally, including Mr Stanhope, knew a potential disaster was on Canberra’s doorstep but did nothing to ensure that the Canberra community was warned promptly and effectively.
Why didn’t you warn us, Chief Minister? The coroner has found that as fact. Mr Stanhope can get up and say what he likes, he can swear 50,000 statutory declarations and he can scream about it until he is blue in the face, but it is fact, because the coroner has found it to be fact—end of story.
Mr Stanhope: Ha, ha! Black is white.
Mr Corbell: Even you couldn’t keep a straight face.
MR STEFANIAK: I am laughing at you, not with you. How more proximate can you get? Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, heard advice and did nothing. He was negligent in his duty as Chief Minister, he failed the people of the ACT and he failed the test of leadership by his own exacting standards.
I suggest to you, Mr Speaker, that this played on his mind. He knew it was his responsibility to take the blame and he said so publicly. It is now one of those iconic statements that will long be remembered: “If you want to blame someone, blame me.” What did you mean by that, Chief Minister? What were you thinking? Was it sincere? It seemed at the time a courageous and heartfelt sentiment, but did you really mean it? Was it merely empty rhetoric, a cynical one-liner, a media grab designed to buy you time to explain how things could have gone so badly on your watch? Let’s be clear, Chief Minister: it was on your watch. You were the responsible minister and, by all reasonable accounts, you failed your responsibility. Did you think that, by saying it, it would make the whole issue go away? If so, it did not, and it will not. Yes, Chief Minister, we do blame you, but you now refuse to accept that blame. You should have resigned.
I have to ask the Chief Minister: what was going on in your mind on 16 January, the day of the cabinet briefing? There you were, in a meeting with your colleagues, listening to reports about the fires. Among the many serious issues reported on at that briefing, you were told that there was serious potential for the fires to affect assets in the ACT, including Canberra suburbs. You were told that Dunlop and Weston Creek were at greatest risk. You were told that Uriarra Forest was 70 per cent at risk. There were cabinet briefing notes. There was a
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