Page 1423 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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We just heard a weird speech from the Chief Minister. To be frank, that is probably the best way to describe it. He was talking about university debating clubs, dilettantes, children clapping hands and people disappearing. It was a very odd speech. I am not sure who the staff member on training wheels is that wrote that in his office.
When people picture dilettantes, I think it is more Andrew Barr that they see rather than me or any of my members. Mr Barr is renowned for being stuck in his university days at ANU Young Labor debating the issues of the day rather than having grown up and taken on the mantle of Chief Minister. This is the problem when we have an individual who has done nothing with his life bar being a hack. He has been a factional hack, somebody who has gone to the university and spent his time in the ANU Young Labor club, come into the Assembly as an adviser and come straight in as a minister, without having the benefit of life experience, as, for example, Mr Wall has; he has run a small business. You end up with the sorts of speeches and behaviour that we have seen from Mr Barr.
There are a number of matters raised in the ministerial code of conduct that it is worth us reminding those opposite of. The first and foremost is integrity. I remind you, Madam Speaker, and those opposite, of the fact that these ministers who sit in this place spouting their integrity are the same people who receive millions of dollars into their coffers in the Labor Party from pokies. When this lot spout integrity, they are funded by, in some cases, the misery of others. They take their money from families. And that is money that is meant for the community. That is meant for the community.
What lack of integrity. Where, outside some tin-pot African dictatorship, would you see the dominant political party, the party of government, owning, regulating and then supporting their political activities by controlling the gambling assets in a town? Not only do they have their own gambling empire, but they are funded, as is Mr Rattenbury, by the proceeds of pokies that flow into the CFMEU. Mr Rattenbury, who spouts integrity as a minister, is the same person who leads a party that takes tens of thousands of dollars from the CFMEU that is funded by pokies. So there is integrity, I remind you, members.
In terms of transparency, we saw a recent example when we tried to get to the bottom of what happened in Ms Burch’s office. We had the issue in Ms Burch’s office that led to her demise as a minister. It became simply untenable. Her office got discovered passing information on to the CFMEU, the very same CFMEU that funds these people, the very same CFMEU that funds Labor and the Greens. Ms Burch was, through her office, funnelling information to them about police investigations. When we tried to find out what was going on, when we tried to uncover what were, in the words of Mr Corbell, serious issues and unprecedented issues that went beyond the police investigation, what did we see? It was shut down. There was no transparency. So in the matter of transparency, when it comes to covering their own tracks, we see a government and a minister from the Greens only too willing to be complicit.
I go to the issue of responsibility in the ministerial code of conduct, about using office responsibly and in the interest of the people of the ACT. There are two fundamental issues here. One is that of light rail and the other is the CFMEU and UnionsACT MOU.
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