Page 2143 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2016
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integrity were raised. I am referring of course to the estimates committee when concerns were raised, there were questions asked of Mr Barr and he at that stage decided instead to go on the attack and call me a coward. He called the Canberra Times “a tired old journalism outfit, a decaying forum in terms of readership and interest”. I am encouraged that today he has not sought to use that sort of language or that sort of attack. I hope that he is taking these issues seriously, and perhaps the fact that one of his own ministers has raised these issues of concern and has called for integrity measures is perhaps sobering for the Chief Minister.
I thank Mr Wall for bringing this matter before the Assembly today. I thought his speech was considered and raised a lot of very pertinent points. The reality is that there is a real perception in the community that something just does not smell right about this government. There is a range of issues, and I will go through some of them today. It is not just the Canberra Liberals saying this. There are many observers, there are many people who are engaged in the political process who have actually gone so far as to speak publicly to raise these concerns, some of which are under investigation by the AFP. There are matters before the court, and the Auditor-General is conducting investigations into a number of issues as well.
These are not matters to be taken lightly. I note that is not just the Canberra Times but the City News raising these issues. Mr Michael Moore, a long-term political adviser, a former member of this place, has provided comment and talked about the odour around ACT Labor. This is in the current issue of the City News. He made the point that there is a smell. He went into some detail and said that there is a whiff around planning and development. He cited as an example:
The Hong Kong-based Aquis casino has ready access to the political process, its proposed $330 million development flies in the face of long-term agreements on poker machines and provides privileged access to a prime lease of land and bypasses an open and transparent process of competitive tendering.
He went on and talked about a number of other deals and the closeness of those deals to members of the ACT Labor government. Indeed, spouses of ministers and also former ministers of this place are involved. Mr Moore made the further point:
In the ACT they also appear to be acting at the behest of the unions. In March the closeness was revealed by the release of a memorandum of understanding with UnionsACT which, amongst other things, stated: “Prior to any contract being awarded: the list of tenderers for each contract will be provided to UnionsACT” and later, “only providers/performers of works and services who meet the set criteria will be pre-qualified.”
He made the point that a long-term government that carries an odour of incumbency is in real danger of being annihilated. Whatever the political judgement is at the ballot box, there is no doubt that Liberal Party candidates come back to me and say that they are out doorknocking, that on the doorsteps these are real, live issues that are made to them and that people are noting the snow around this government and they do not like it, regardless of their political affiliation. In fact, much of the commentary comes from Labor Party members who are disappointed in their own government.
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