Page 867 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mrs Dunne: Eighteen.
MR SMYTH: Eighteen. You want to go to 18. We have 18. “Ensure Government records, and records of decisions, are properly kept.” You only have to go to the meetings of cabinet in the lead-up to the bushfires in 2003 to know that records are not properly kept by this government and that memories are faulty.
Pick another number. Let us go to the last one, 26: “Make sure our Shopfronts are never solely computer-based”. “Labor accepts that there are cost implications in these commitments.” “As part of our Code of Good Government, we undertake” to keep the shopfronts open. What happened with the shopfronts mentioned in this commitment? What does Jon Stanhope say on the last page of his speech? He says:
There are those in our community who do not have access to technology, or who are intimidated by it, and they must not be forgotten. Labor’s Shopfronts will never be a wall of computer screens: they will always be staffed by real people.
That is why there are real people working across the road in the Civic shopfront! Oh, my; there are not! You are right: it is not a wall of computers; it has been shut. There you are. Let us pick another one.
Mrs Dunne: Twenty-three.
MR SMYTH: Twenty-three: “Reduce use of consultants”. If you go to any of the annual reports in the last six years, Mr Deputy Speaker, the use of consultants just grows and grows. Pick another number—any number.
Mrs Dunne: Seven.
MR SMYTH: No 7. Let us go back to No 7. My favourite, Mr Deputy Speaker: “Review the Ministerial Code of Conduct.” Why would you review it? You do not use it. You do not apply it. Nobody is held accountable to it. You would not wipe your bum with it. It is a piece of useless material that our gutless Chief Minister refuses to put in place. Pick another number, any number. What about 18? No, we have done that: make sure government records are kept well.
Mrs Dunne: Thirteen.
MR SMYTH: Thirteen: “Establish joint electorate offices in Belconnen, Woden, Tuggeranong, Gungahlin”. This document is not worth the paper it is written on. This document is an absolute joke. Then we go to the Chief Minister’s defence: “We’ve got an FMA.” Yes, members, we have a Financial Management Act. It is just a shame that the government does not abide by it.
The Chief Minister is quick to point out some of the failings or perceived failings of the previous government, but let us go to what the Auditor-General said about the Stanhope government’s arrangement to put $10 million into a project to upgrade fire security in public housing. The Auditor-General said of the arrangements that were made “that the $10m paid to Housing in 2001-2002 was a misuse of the Treasurer’s
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .