Elizabeth Lee pushes for 30-day cabinet paper release
The ACT's Opposition Leader has introduced a bill which would require cabinet papers in the territory to be proactively released within 30 days.
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00:00 My bill will improve transparency, accountability and ministerial responsibility in government decisions.
00:07 This Labor Greens government is known for hiding behind processes to ensure that they're not transparent with the public.
00:17 There have been so many decisions that have been made by this Barbara Attenborough government that have had devastating impacts on Canberrans
00:24 and to have Cabinet documents kept hidden away for 10 years provides no assurance to the public that this Labor Greens government is making decisions in the best interests of Canberrans.
00:38 What my bill does is strikes the right balance between ensuring we have full transparency, accountability and ministerial responsibility for decisions
00:48 whilst at the same time providing sufficient protections to ensure that documents that are not in the public interest and need to be protected are protected.
00:59 Labor and the Greens took a big game when it comes to integrity in government, when it comes to transparency and accountability, especially the Greens.
01:07 If they are truly committed to ensuring full transparency, accountability and ministerial responsibility in ACT government decisions, then they should have no concerns about supporting my legislation.
01:21 There's countless examples of if my bill had been in place, the community would have been well aware of some of the decisions that have absolutely been slammed by the Auditor-General and by the Integrity Commission.
01:37 Of course, you just have to have a look at the scathing comments of the Auditor-General in relation to the Campbell Primary School modernisation project,
01:44 which of course is now the subject of a very public Integrity Commission inquiry.
01:50 And of course, the comments in relation to the Active Waterfront project.
01:54 There are issues arising out of the CRT contracts scandal.
01:58 There are issues arising out of the $76 million that was spent on the abandoned HRIT project.
02:05 These are countless examples of decisions that have been made by this Labor-Greens government that lack transparency, that lack accountability and most importantly, that lack ministerial responsibility.
02:18 My bill will go a long way to ensuring that there is public confidence from the community that decisions that have been made by the very privileged people who are in a position to make decisions for and on behalf of Canberra's
02:33 are doing it with the best interests of the community at heart.
02:37 [no audio]