Page 1315 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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They claim that they have brought in new freedom of information laws. I took particular exception to that because, although I was grateful for the support of the Greens in bringing through the reforms that were brought forward, they were the work of the Canberra Liberals, and the committee work that is currently going on was as a result of the work of the Canberra Liberals. Yes, the Greens did vote for it, but it was not their initial or original work and I think they should be entirely truthful about that.
The other thing they say is that the Greens secured the government agreement that political parties will have to make donations public every month or every week leading up to an election. I do not know that the ACT government has actually agreed to that and I hope that that is not an electoral porky.
One of the other things they say is that the Greens’ motion passed by the Assembly called on the federal government to review the self-government act. Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, that was really successful. Because of the way that it was dealt with here, as the Canberra Liberals predicted, the federal government wrote back and said: “No, thank you very much. We’re not interested in doing that.”
There are some things here which on the face of them do seem to be true and laudable. It is the right of every political party to claim wins when they have them, and that is fair enough. I would like to point to some of the things which are not particularly wins. Under “A Sustainable City” and “Solar City” the Greens claim:
Expressions of interest sought for solar facility in ACT with $30 Million Government funds to be appropriated for project.
Both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party went to the last election with a proposal to spend something like $30 million to support a solar facility here. But the thing is that there have been expressions of interest gone out but we are still waiting—because the minister cannot get his act together. We will have a three-stage process and we may get a preferred tenderer somewhere around September this year, if the minister meets his timetable, which is just on two years after the last election. So I do not think that that is anything to crow about.
However, in a week when there has been a bit of controversy about dodgy electoral flyers in South Australia, I do draw to your attention, Madam Deputy Speaker, that there appears to be no authorisation of any sort on this document, neither in the original or the photocopy, and I would ask whether the Greens have addressed this issue, that there is no authorisation. I suggest that this may be a matter that should be taken up with the electoral commissioner in the near future, and perhaps the Greens might like to address the issue of what they have done about fixing up the authorisation on this unauthorised pamphlet that was circulated to suburbs in Canberra in the last few weeks.
Rosary primary school
Brindabella Motor Sport Club
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (5.46): Last week Mr Doszpot and I had the opportunity as part of the Catholic Schools Week celebration to visit
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