Page 3603 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 25 August 2009
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This document was released for public comment on 26 July 2008 in the lead-up to the election. A total of 16 submissions were received by the deadline of 8 September 2008. You only have to look at some of the instances of a major lack of consultation since that time to know that this was a pre-election sham. We have Ms Gallagher cutting secret deals with the Little Company of Mary, such that she would have a heads of agreement by the caretaker period so that this deal to purchase Calvary Hospital could actually go ahead with no public consultation whatsoever. There is a document where the health minister and Deputy Chief Minister says: “Let’s wrap this up before caretaker. Let’s cut the deal. Let’s not consult, it’s only $100 million”. That is the approach of this government.
Then, of course, we have Mr Corbell and consultation with the fire brigades. In consulting with the Rural Fire Service brigades, Mr Corbell was told that we should have independent service chiefs for all the emergency services—fire, ambulance, State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service. In early July he said: “No way is that going to happen. I’ve spoken to the commissioner and we’re sticking with the two-deputy-commissioner model that we have.” Two weeks later, without any consultation with anyone, the minister for emergency services simply does a backflip and refuses to give any notion of support to the Emergency Services Authority commissioner, hence leading to his demise.
The problem here is that they did not know how they would implement it. I draw members’ attention to the front page of the most recent issue of the ACT Rural Fire Service Bushfire Express, volume 2, issue 6, under the heading “Changes for ESA”. This is the official magazine that comes out of emergency services headquarters for rural service volunteers. What does it say? It says:
There are no clear directions as to how this change will be implemented, however the A/g Commissioner and Senior JaCS Executives will be consulting with staff and key stakeholders over the coming weeks.
So: “We’ve made a decision. We’ve put in place a new structure, and now we’re going to talk to you about it. Do you like what we’ve done?” That is serious consultation! We also have a chief officer update, and I have got update 2, which arrived on Friday, 21 August. Now we have got consultation on the 11th, the 13th, the 14th, the 17th, the 19th, the 20th. So: “We’ve made a decision. Now we’re going to set out a validation process.” It is not consultation when you have already taken the decision. What you are doing is going out and seeking to validate what you have done. That is not consultation.
You can take the citizen-centred governance summary report of submissions and just tear it up, because it simply does not mean anything. That is the problem with this government. It is hard to work out the outcomes from that project, and we know that not only did the government not listen to the consultation, but we then had Minister Hargreaves admit today when asked questions about the fringe festival that, “I could have given some thought.” Well, yes, he could have given some thought. He could have given some thought to a litany of issues that have plagued his ministerial days. Remember, Mr Hargreaves did not get a seat in the first Stanhope cabinet. For three
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