Page 3963 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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MR STANHOPE: They essentially wreaked havoc on service delivery within the ACT. Through the 2007-07 budget we put in place structures and discipline that allowed us to continue to—
Mrs Dunne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question is about running down ACTION bus services in 2006.
MR STANHOPE: That is what I am talking about.
MR SPEAKER: The question was about 2005-06, and the Chief Minister and Treasurer was explaining his intervention in the budget process which led to the changes in ACTION.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. That is the point I was making. The government, for reasons that I have sought to articulate through the interruptions, took a range of decisions and each of my ministers implemented those decisions.
Ministerial performance
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, yesterday in a matter of public importance in relation to emergency services, specifically on the issue of the failure of the FireLink project, the current Minister for Emergency Services, Mr Corbell, said, in relation to responsibility for the failure of FireLink, that ministers needed to accept responsibility. In late 2004 and throughout 2005, during the procurement and installation period of FireLink, Mr Hargreaves was the responsible Minister. Chief Minister, do you agree that during this period Mr Hargreaves failed to execute ministerial oversight in relation to the FireLink project? If so, what responsibility should he accept for the failure of the project?
MR STANHOPE: I have to say that I have listened particularly closely to responses that the minister for emergency services, Mr Corbell, has made to questions and other queries in relation to FireLink. I have absolutely no doubt that the preamble to that particular question completely misrepresents the position that Mr Corbell has consistently put in relation to this matter. It completely and utterly misrepresents Mr Corbell’s position. It is another one of those questions where, having in a preamble completely misrepresented the facts, the question becomes impossible to answer because it is based on a complete and total fallacy and misrepresentation. The question essentially cannot be answered.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question?
MRS DUNNE: Perhaps this one cannot be answered either. Is the failure of Minister Hargreaves, as the minister for emergency services, to properly manage the FireLink project the reason why you stripped him of the job of Minister for Police and Emergency Services? If this was not the reason, what was the reason?
MR STANHOPE: I must say that I did hesitate to get into some of the detail around some of the issues in relation to FireLink, but most certainly, as Mr Corbell has explained ad nauseam, though obviously you have not listened, it is very much a
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