Page 846 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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This whole matter has a bit of a sad history, and now is not the time to deal with that matter. The far more serious issues concern the way in which this government has treated a committee of this Assembly with what can only be called contempt and the failure of this government to comply with the clear and unambiguous requirements of the Road Transport (Third-Party Insurance) Act, an amendment that they voted for on the day.
It is very important when governments fail to comply with the law that they are held to account. The question is: who holds the government to account when they break the law? Well, this place does. We do. It is appropriate to put on the record that the house of Assembly does not tolerate the breaking of the law by the government. As we have seen with things like children in care, the government is quite willing to break the law, but we are not willing to accept that.
In relation to the contempt of the Assembly, I am astounded at the way in which this government has promised on a number of occasions to deliver the report of the review of the third-party regime to the public accounts committee but has failed so spectacularly to honour those promises, particularly when the requirement for this report has been central to the conduct of the inquiry by the public accounts committee.
This failure on the part of the government is nothing short of disgraceful. The government has had more than enough notice of the requirement to complete the report. It has had three years notice that it would need to do a report, and despite promise after promise both last year and, indeed, this year, the government has failed to provide the report to PAC. If one looks closely at the ACT Assembly draft program circulated yesterday after the meeting of cabinet, it is not to be tabled this week either. The only paper to be tabled by the Treasurer this week is the government’s response to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts inquiry into the draft exposure of the financial management ethical investment legislation. That is the only thing the Treasurer is tabling this week, according to what has been circulated. Indeed, he is not tabling anything at all on Thursday.
The question is: when will PAC get the report? The problem for PAC is we now cannot do our job, and that is unacceptable. It is a contempt of the role of the committees of this Assembly and it deserves a very strong response from the Assembly.
Secondly, there is the failure of the government to comply with section 275 of the act which is being reviewed, which I proposed in debate on this bill in February 2008. It is quite clear, and let me read section 275(2):
The Minister must present a report on the review to the Legislative Assembly within 3 months after the day the review is started.
Let me read it again:
The Minister must present a report on the review to the Legislative Assembly within 3 months after the day the review is started.
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