Page 2131 - Week 06 - Thursday, 26 June 2008
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While the provision of funding assistance to the private sector can be subject to question, there are some situations in which sound arguments can be developed for such assistance, particularly when there is a competitive application and evaluation process. This Stanhope government failed with this one, and the Rudd government is now starting on the same path to failure.
I also have continuing concerns about the role of the Chief Minister and his department in the lead-up to and in the changed arrangements for the 2008 annual balloon event. It is yet another example of poor process by the Stanhope government. In this one we have seen fair assessment processes overturned behind closed doors, a community-based activity by an ACT-based incorporated group replaced by a government-managed event, a lack of transparency with decision making, a lack of transparency about the costs of running the government-managed event in 2008, concerns about the presence of conflict of interest, concerns about the varying of the role of public servants in dealing with the private sector and a major concern about the lack of accountability. More particularly, and specifically with respect to this department, the community has an interest in learning what role the Chief Minister played in any decision making about the balloon event in 2008.
As well, it is interesting to note that, in his haste to laud the apparent outcome of this year’s balloon event, the Chief Minister made rather a mess of using statistics. Rather than a quarter of all the people who attended the ballooning event being tourists who specifically came for the event, the actual situation was that, of all the people who came to the ACT from interstate or from overseas, a quarter of those people came specifically for the balloon event. It is a significant difference from the Chief Minister’s exaggerated claims.
Contrary to the Chief Minister’s claims in 2001 when he was Leader of the Opposition, this government has not been open, has not been transparent and has not been accountable about these matters. It is interesting that, again, what we see is a continuing decline in the amount of accountability that the Chief Minister would put to the community.
It is interesting that, on page 42 of the estimates report, the select committee has recommended that a state of the service report be prepared each year as part of the annual reporting processes by the government. But the government response to this is less than satisfactory. In fact, what the government says is: we do some other things and that is okay. So the government’s response is: not agreed.
The ACT government workforce profile provides a snapshot and, in combination with the Commissioner for Public Administration’s annual report, provides an effective report on the state of the ACT public sector. I disagree. Let us disagree. The report, which has been prepared for a number of years, clearly outlines what was happening within the public sector. It is very important in this town that we are across that, that we become aware and remain aware of what is happening with our public servants. And if you are genuine about being open and accountable to the people of the ACT, this is one of the things that you would do.
Inside Chief Minister’s, there are many areas. It also includes the LDA. I am not going to go back over the LDA and the mess that has been made of this whole sad
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