Page 602 - Week 03 - Thursday, 15 March 2007
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responsibility for not overruling them. If that is your position, then you are accepting that your role as the minister for emergency services will be to accept full responsibility for all operational decisions in relation to emergency services.
If that is the philosophy underpinning this particular motion of no confidence—asking the minister for emergency services to resign because he will not intervene in an operational decision—then you have to ask, “How will other ministers engage with this philosophy?” Will the minister for education in a Liberal government stand in front of the class or determine absolutely what the curriculum shall be? Will the minister for health actually stand in the operating theatre? Will the minister for health actually assist in brain surgery? Where do you draw the line? You want interference in relation to operational matters involving the Emergency Services Authority.
Mr Pratt: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR STANHOPE: What is your attitude then to the role of a minister for health?
Mr Pratt: Mr Speaker, I have a point of order.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, there is a point of order.
Mr Pratt: My point of order is on relevance, Mr Speaker. When will he defend the minister?
MR SPEAKER: Order! He is being relevant because he is drawing attention to the subject by referring to the motion of no confidence.
MR STANHOPE: It is an absolute nonsense. As I said before, it is another day, another no-confidence motion—two no-confidence motions in two weeks. We are now into March. Not a single question from the opposition on an issue of substance and concern to the Canberra community like education, health or the budget. None!
We have all forgotten what Bill Stefaniak stands for, who he represents or what his shadow portfolios are. Nobody has got a clue. Nor with Mrs Burke. Just rabbit on around inconsequentia. The shadow minister for health and the shadow minister for education have not asked a question all year on either of their portfolios. The two biggest areas of responsibility within the territory—the most significant, the ones of most importance and relevance to the people of Canberra—health and education: not a single question. We have this stunt today. It is a stunt, and it will be seen for what it is—a stunt.
Fancy seeking credibility with the community and standing up in this place today and asking the minister for emergency services to resign because he will not intervene in an operational matter! You have parroted on and pontificated now for months about the need for operational independence. When the minister stands up on the principle of operational independence and says, “I respect the need for operational independence”—what you pretend you are calling for—you ask him to resign. He has an expert, and he wants the expert to do his job. He is going to support him in doing that job, just as I will and just as I will support him. (Time expired.)
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