Page 2817 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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Mr Seselja: I think you denied it on the night.
MR STANHOPE: Mr Smyth was a far more successful leader than Mr Seselja.
Mr Hanson: Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: he is clearly ignoring your ruling.
MR STANHOPE: I had wanted to acknowledge that.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock, please. Your point of order?
Mr Hanson: On a point of order, he is clearly ignoring your ruling.
MR STANHOPE: No; I was explaining why I transgressed.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope, please continue with the subject of the motion.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. But we do need to put this motion in that context—that every motion today invites the Assembly to condemn me. There is just a touch of a pattern there. It is in that context that we should address this particular motion by Mr Seselja with the lack of seriousness that it deserves.
Having said that, it is important that we do recognise, as we always have, the important role of the Auditor-General in our system of government, which is based on checks and balances and which places the Auditor-General in a very significant position in that role of checks and balances.
For instance, if it had not been for the Auditor-General we would never have received findings in relation to the Bruce Stadium redevelopment—the findings of the then Auditor-General. We would not have had the advantage that we have of findings such as that the payments made by the Liberal Party for the redevelopment of the Bruce Stadium were in excess of the amounts appropriated, that they were not lawful and that the overnight borrowings contained within that particular budget were also unlawful.
We would not have had rulings from the then auditor, for instance, that would have informed us and advised the community that the Liberal Party, in its management of infrastructure, most particularly the most significant piece of infrastructure that it managed, the Bruce Stadium redevelopment, had in place governance and management arrangements that were simply ineffective; that the negotiation by the Liberal Party for the hiring of the stadium did not contribute, and will never contribute, to the commercial viability of the stadium; that the management and market research and marketing undertaken by the Liberal Party in relation to Bruce Stadium were not contained within cost estimates on which the cabinet decisions were based, in other words that the cabinet decision had simply been ignored; that the management of the financing arrangements for Bruce Stadium given to meet the costs was ineffective; or that the decision to redevelop the stadium was made without the aid of relevant,
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