Page 2378 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
We took the extraordinary step of authorising the chair to write to organisations that have been misled by the Chief Minister. Ms Gallagher was recalled about car parks and there were discussions about FOI. Mr Barr has been condemned for his failure to front the committee and explain himself; there is a recommendation that says that the Assembly should pursue him. His comments on EPIC and the board of management are appalling. He seems to suggest that the EPIC board have taken moneys that were appropriated for one thing and simply put them into its cash surpluses. He then gives evidence about payment for board members that was wrong. He had to write correcting the record.
There was Mr Corbell on Tidbinbilla and the ESA headquarters. Mr Corbell, in the third appropriation, said—and there is a section in the report about this—that it would be dealt with in the budget. He was quite clear. He meant this budget. He has tried to rewrite history to say that it might be some budget. Tidbinbilla is not mentioned in the budget; it does not get the fire shed that its Rural Fire Service volunteers deserve.
Of course, there is Mr Hargreaves—the standard, the behaviour, taking questions on notice that he should have had answers for, and his belligerent attitude.
All of the ministers were held to account by this process. All of the ministers come out of this with things to answer. We see the pattern of behaviour. What we saw over the two weeks of scrutiny was a pattern of secrecy, a pattern of abuse of process and misuse of power.
We had the revelation that the Chief Minister has tantrums and orders staff to write political attack letters against the media and against the Liberals and put ads in to salve his wounded pride because he thought something was good and somebody attacked him. We had the revelation that the health minister, Katy Gallagher, personally intervened to use Canberra Hospital to film party political ads.
We had the revelation that the Chief Minister did not tell the community about the refusal of finance companies to back the land rent scheme. We had that extraordinary admission by a spokesperson for the Chief Minister in the Canberra Times that Genworth Financial did not own up and tell the truth—they were embarrassed because of the GFC.
Mr Seselja: They lied.
MR SMYTH: They in effect say that Genworth lied, and it is just not true. Genworth wrote a comprehensive letter where they say, “We have looked at both your programs. Yes, we will take OwnPlace, but there is no way we are going to touch the land rent scheme.” There is a letter saying it, and in that letter there is absolutely no reference to the global financial crisis.
We then saw the statement by the head of the education department that filming at a school would potentially be a conflict of interest and that the request would be refused. But upon checking the records, she found out that the chief of staff of the minister for education had talked to the former head of education and done the deal.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .