Page 1481 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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Mr Hanson did it this morning. Mr Hanson has done it very ably through question time, through the fact that we receive information that the Greens do not receive, that the government does not want us to receive, because the people of Canberra know that we are prepared not to roll over when the government says roll over, that we are prepared to stand up to the government and shine a light on their inadequacies, on their failures, on their incapacity to ensure that staff are properly trained and properly equipped to do the job that they have to do in a very difficult area.
It is a disgrace today that this motion, a motion seeking information for all members of this place, should be voted down. It is a day when this government and their Green cronies will be condemned by the people of the ACT and the people who are working in the Bimberi youth justice system, because it shows that they want to cover things up.
When we talk about the cover-ups, Mr Barr again says, “I will table a statement that explains away the claims of collusion in those minutes.” But if you talk to the staff who were at that meeting, they actually will tell you that those minutes were a very mild representation of what they were told at that meeting. Staff at that meeting are prepared to pass on to the opposition the information that we are on the money, that there was a serious attempt to prevent them from going to the inquiry. And that is not the only one.
Mr Seselja is correct. Because the inquiry is conducted in the way that it is, the inquiry does not have the power to compel witnesses. It can only deal with people who come forward of their own volition. So if anyone comes forward and makes an allegation of malfeasance, mismanagement or anything like that, the inquiry does not have the power to call the accused person and require them to answer questions in relation to this.
So this is an inquiry that does not have any powers. And the inquiry, if it wanted to, does not have the power to go to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group in the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support and get to the bottom of whether there was an attempt to muzzle people who may have wanted to go to the inquiry, because they do not have the power to compel people to give evidence. And this is what is wrong with the inquiry and this is what is wrong with this government. They want to cover up, and this motion today puts a really heavy red line under the fact that they want to cover up.
I go to the Canberra Liberals’ narrative, which is not a politicisation of this issue. It is a representation of the workers there who are concerned for their job, who know that they are being victimised by this minister and her officials and who want justice for themselves and the young people who live there.
Question put:
That the motion, as amended, be agreed to.
The Assembly voted—
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