Page 1576 - Week 04 - Thursday, 25 March 2010
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In the Greens-Labor agreement, we see a lot of the right words, words that are meant to ensure a change of attitudes. The agreement states:
The parties commit to:
1. Accountability and collaboration
The purpose being to improve accountability and practice in the relationship between the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary in the ACT, and improve the involvement of non-executive Assembly Members in the development of legislation, policy and service delivery.
The Greens-Labor agreement also states:
Pursue measures which will ensure:
(a) Parliamentary procedures which enforce the accountability of the Executive to Parliament …
(b) Greater collaboration between the Executive and Parliament in the development of legislation …
(c) Higher standards of accountability, transparency and responsibility in the conduct of all public business …
This week’s debate about questions regarding the Greens-Labor agreement, the fundamental agreement that keeps ACT Labor in charge of this territory, resulted in a ruling from the Speaker that the agreement is out of bounds during question time. Where is the scrutiny for the multitude of decisions made and the millions of dollars spent under this agreement? The Labor-Greens agreement is in place and governs much of the spending of this government, yet we cannot ask questions relating to it. This is quite absurd.
On the very front page we have the statement:
Undertaking to ensure an accountable and transparent government, public service and parliament that are responsive to the community …
However, we cannot even ask questions about this statement. We cannot even question the minister, or any minister, on how he or she is ensuring accountable and transparent government, public service and parliament that are responsive to the community. How can this equate to being open, honest and accountable?
We, as the opposition, have the task of holding the government to account. We have an obligation to the people of Canberra who voted for us to do this, to provide an open and accountable government, and the crossbench have that same obligation. We and the community were hoping that there would be more cooperation to maintain that momentum that was generated during the last election. But there are too many compromises that seem to get in the way, far too many compromises.
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