Opposition Leader Leanne Castley dubbed the passing of three motions for the government to produce a raft of documents as “Transparency Tuesday”. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Childcare incident reports, road upgrade and duplication business cases, recent economic documents for light rail, Canberra Stadium, hospital expansion and Big Canberra Battery projects. These are just some of the raft of papers the ACT Government was urged to release under standing order 213A by the Canberra Liberals, ACT Greens and independent Thomas Emerson.
The order was previously used to evaluate whether several old light rail documents were subject to parliamentary or legal privilege after a motion from the Canberra Liberals. It was found they weren’t, and they were subsequently released.
The Opposition has now followed up, using the standing order on Tuesday (24 June) as a basis to call on Chief Minister Andrew Barr to produce: a list of business cases prepared or commissioned by the government since 11 December, 2014; project completion reports provided to the Commonwealth since this same date; and any business cases, economic evaluations or cost-benefit analyses for the following projects by 18 July:
- The Canberra Hospital expansion, the Northside Hospital, Canberra Institute of Technology Woden
- Canberra Stadium, the Convention Centre redevelopment, the Telstra Tower redevelopment
- The Canberra Aquatic Centre, the Canberra Theatre redevelopment, the Tuggeranong Ice Sports Facility
- Light rail stage 1 and raising London Circuit
- The Big Canberra Battery and the electrification of the government’s gas assets.
Opposition leader Leanne Castley said her party’s priority was finding answers to the community’s financial questions.
“Canberrans deserve to know how the government is spending their money … and if these investments stack up,” she said.
ACT Greens deputy leader Jo Clay also added any school and college infrastructure projects valued at or over $25 million, the FOGO processing facility and the Materials Recovery Facility to the list.
The ACT Greens also want all business cases, economic evaluations, cost-benefit ratios or analyses, information documenting project final costs, budget breakdowns and post-completion asset performance metrics for a number of road projects.
The projects the party is interested in are: William Hovell Drive duplication, Monaro Highway upgrade, Molonglo River bridge, Athllon Drive duplication, Sulwood Drive, Gundaroo Drive duplication and Drake Brockman Drive.
ACT Greens transport spokesperson Andrew Braddock had previously tried to receive such documents using Questions on Notice but they were labelled as Cabinet-in-confidence.
The motion was amended so the documents would be released before Transport Canberra fronted budget estimate hearings.
“Should the government decide not to release that information [before the agreed date], it could be seen as an attempt to prevent the transparency of this information in preparation for those hearings,” Mr Braddock said.
MLA Thomas Emerson’s called for documents regarding serious incidents at Canberra childcare centres. Photo: Facebook.
Independent MLA Thomas Emerson had his sights on documents relating to serious incidents in early childhood education and care centres across the ACT.
These included emergency action notices, prohibition notices, suspension and compliance notices, enforceable undertakings and documents relating to suspected, alleged, or actual criminal conduct (including physical or sexual abuse of a child, potential fraud, wage underpayment), or risk of significant harm incidents.
Alleged incidents regarding several Canberra providers have recently been made public, including Affinity Education, Guardian Education and Childcare and Genius Childcare.
Mr Emerson said he wanted to know whether the issues of poor regulation interstate were also endemic in Canberra.
“Families deserve to know if their children are being kept safe,” he said.
“Incredibly disturbing incidents of abuse and neglect in the early childhood sector have been exposed across the border.
“With centres in the ACT reporting the highest frequency of serious incidents in the nation, community members are rightly concerned about what might be going on behind closed doors here.”
For the period 2023-24, there were 235 serious incidents per 100 approved services in Canberra. The national average is 148 incidents per 100 approved services.
Mr Emerson’s motion called for the documents to be produced in three months rather than the 14-day turnaround required by the standing orders.
The motions were all passed, but not all were agreed to by the government.
The government supported Mr Braddock and Ms Castley’s motions, but not Mr Emerson’s.
“Here, here for Transparency Tuesday,” Ms Castley remarked.
On Ms Castley’s motion, Mr Barr foreshadowed the projects currently before tender and being negotiated would run into disclosure issues.
He also said not every project would have a positive cost-benefit, nor should they.
“The government needs to invest in projects that support a range of programs in the community and [those supports] are not just economic,” Mr Barr said.
ACT Labor was against Mr Emerson’s motion, with Early Childhood Education Minister Yvette Berry labelling it a “scare campaign” for a “moment in the news”.
“The ACT has one of the strongest reporting cultures in the country,” she said.
“This is a good thing … we should not conflate reporting with wrong doing.”
She argued the motion put the ACT’s reporting culture at risk, would erode public trust and confidence in the sector, and would potentially “pit educators and families against each other”.
