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Debates of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory

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Debates of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY SIXTH ASSEMBLY WEEKLY HANSARD 18 OCTOBER 2005 Tuesday, 18 October 2005 Chief Minister (Motion of censure)..............................................................................3711 Administration and Procedure—Standing Committee.................................................3740 Questions without notice: Bushfires—warnings ................................................................................................3741 Industrial relations....................................................................................................3742 Anti-terrorism legislation .........................................................................................3744 Bushfires—warnings ................................................................................................3747 Anti-terrorism legislation .........................................................................................3748 Environment—solar cities program .........................................................................3751 Water—Googong catchment ....................................................................................3753 Budget—public service savings ...............................................................................3755 Gungahlin swimming pool .......................................................................................3755 Industrial relations....................................................................................................3756 Floriade.....................................................................................................................3759 Answers to questions on notice: Question No 567.......................................................................................................3761 Question No 534.......................................................................................................3761 Personal explanation.....................................................................................................3761 Papers ...........................................................................................................................3761 Executive contracts.......................................................................................................3762 Financial Management Act...........................................................................................3763 Indigenous education performance report ....................................................................3763 Papers ...........................................................................................................................3766 Annual and financial reports ........................................................................................3767 Papers ...........................................................................................................................3769 Medicinal use of cannabis (Ministerial statement).......................................................3771 Industrial relations (Matter of public importance) .......................................................3774 Legal Affairs—Standing Committee............................................................................3792 Financial Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2005..........................................3793 Adjournment: Land valuations ........................................................................................................3801 Land valuations ........................................................................................................3803 ACT Eden Monaro Cancer Support Group..............................................................3803 Sharability charity bowls day ...................................................................................3804 Recycling—Bokashi bucket .....................................................................................3805 Canberra sporting teams ...........................................................................................3806 Sailability ................................................................................................................3807 Monte 24-hour cycle race......................................................................................3808 Schedules of Amendments: Schedule 1: Financial Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2005..................3810 Schedule 2: Financial Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2005..................3813 Schedule 3: Financial Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2005..................3813 Legislative Assembly for the ACT Tuesday, 18 October 2005 MR SPEAKER (Mr Berry) took the chair at 10.30 am, made a formal recognition that the Assembly was meeting on the lands of the traditional owners, and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory. Chief Minister Motion of censure MR SMYTH (Brindabella—Leader of the Opposition) (10.31): I seek leave to move a motion censuring the Chief Minister. Leave granted. MR SMYTH: I move: That this Assembly censures the Chief Minister for his recklessness in publishing the draft-in-confidence Anti-Terrorism Bill, an action that has jeopardised the faith and goodwill of other State and Territory leaders, as well as the Commonwealth, and embarrassed the ACT and exposed it to ridicule. When censure is deserved it is important that it is moved immediately. That is why this morning, as we start the sitting week, I move the censure of this Chief Minister. The question is this: we have a Chief Minister who paraded around like a lion that he was not going to be rolled in the COAG meeting; he was going to go forward and stand for civil liberties; he was going to go forward and put the case of the ACT; he was not going to be perturbed or disturbed or moved from his course. Yet the lion that went into the COAG meeting emerged like a lamb, ashen faced. He had been told the story of what was needed and he was now in agreement. The Chief Minister signed up, as did all the other premiers and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, to the anti-terror legislation. He agreed. He said he had been convinced that this legislation should go forward. But the Chief Minister, who was so concerned about this legislation, who did not front his Labor colleagues, did not look the Prime Minister in the eye and say, “No way. This is never going to happen—not while I am the Chief Minister.” He came back to the ACT Assembly and decided that he did not like it, that he was going to do it his way, that he was going to grandstand and put out there the case that this was too draconian, even though he had signed up to it in the COAG meeting. He felt so strongly about this legislation that he then chose to release, on Friday, a confidential draft. Not only did he release the confidential draft—a draft given to him and to all premiers and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory in confidence; he also posted it to the worldwide web for all to see, saying that this was to encourage discussion and public consultation. If that was how he felt, why on earth did he sign up to it in the first place? We have quotes from Premier Bracks and Premier Iemma saying that what was promised in the meeting is what is being delivered and that they will work with the commonwealth to 3711 18 October 2005 Legislative Assembly for the ACT ensure that it is delivered. But the Chief Minister of the ACT would rather go it alone, embarrass the ACT, open it up to ridicule and say, “No, I am not going to sign up to what I agreed to.” We see in this legislation agreement by all the states and territories that we have a problem, and that it is only through a consistent national effort that we can fix that problem. But we have a Chief Minister who is now proposing that, if necessary, he will write his own legislation. The fear that has been raised by this side of the house for some time now—that we will become the back door for terrorist activity by not having nationally consistent legislation in the ACT—may well be realised. I go back to the question. If you did not like it, why on earth did you not have the guts to say no in the first place? I am reminded of Peter Walsh’s comments about old jellyback. Did old jellyback sit in the COAG meeting and nod, shake his head, agree and go along with the boys because that was the good thing to do? Then, when he came back, because people pressured him here in the ACT, he simply changed his mind. It begins to look like doing a bit of the hokey-pokey: I put my left foot in, I put my left foot out; I put my left foot in and I shake it all about. That is what we are doing: we are shaking the ACT around and around so Mr Stanhope can simply grandstand. That is what this is about. How can we forget how he talked up his stout defence of civil liberties before the COAG meeting? How can we forget how those brave words turned out to be nothing more than flim-flam? Never, I think, in the history of the Assembly have we seen such an abject backflip. If there was ever a sign of the gutlessness of the Chief Minister, that was it. He had the opportunity to say his piece, to look the Prime Minister, the Premiers and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory in the eye and say, “I do not agree.” He emerged from that meeting in solidarity with those other individuals and said, “I agree”—until he got back to the ACT Assembly and changed his
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