Page 5205 - Week 12 - Thursday, 27 October 2011
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Ministers will treat other Members of the Legislative Assembly, members of the public and other officials honestly and fairly, with proper regard for their personal dignity, rights, entitlements, duties and obligations, and should at all times act responsibly in the performance of their public duties.
That is why we move this motion today. In the lead-up to the election, there will a number of promises, a number of commitments made, and there will be claim and counterclaim. But it is important that those claims and counterclaims are made honestly. In the lead-up to the election it is important, particularly with electoral costings, that we have truth and honesty.
Unfortunately, the release of the Canberra Liberals’ policy to remove the fee burden on the part payment of rego was not greeted with truth and honesty. What we find is, in fact, that numbers are tabled that cannot be supported by a Chief Minister who refuses to table in this place the documentation that led her to use the $10 million figure. Indeed, this comes from a Chief Minister that has floating around a bill on election commitment costings so that we can have truth and honesty in our election costings. It is quite apparent that, at the first opportunity where the Chief Minister had the opportunity to behave as a Chief Minister on these costings, she has failed.
We know how this Chief Minister works. In 2004 in the lead-up to the election we had the statement there would be no school closures under Katy Gallagher, and we know that six weeks after the election that promise was thrown out the window. In the lead-up to the 2008 election we had the famous statement, “All our plans are on the table,” except, of course, for the secret plan with a heads of agreement in place for the ACT government to purchase Calvary hospital. We know that this Chief Minister has got form; we know that she is not to be trusted, and she proved that on Friday by using a figure of $10 million that she refuses to substantiate in this place. I have a dramatic sense of deja vu, and I am sure all on this side and probably many on the crossbench have a sense of deja vu as well.
I want to illustrate how important it is that we nip this in the bud. I simply want to go to a document put out before the last election called “Back into the Red” about how the Liberals planned to drive Canberra to deficit. What did that go on to say? Fact No 6: “The Liberals spent half a billion dollars in promises before the election was called.” Wrong, and it was proven wrong. How do we know it is wrong? If you go to the ACT Treasury costings released three days before the election, they said it was wrong. They proved it was wrong because they had accurate and reliable numbers that did not add up to half a billion dollars. Indeed, it added up to a whole lot less than half a billion dollars.
Let us not have the sense of deja vu. Let us have truth and honesty in our costings. Let us make sure that we do not go through this rigmarole again. Let us make sure we nip this in the bud so that it does not occur again. Indeed, we have to remember that the government also said our policies did not work, but then they proceeded to steal them—smaller class sizes, Treasurer’s advance, travel and stationery.
Katy Gallagher is the Chief Minister, and, when she speaks, people hear her as the Chief Minister. They hear her as the head of government and they expect that what
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