EDITORIAL: The Estimates Show is not currently functioning in the public’s interest and needs to be shut down and re-formatted or the main players possibly re-cast to get it back on track.
The only person in the Litchfield room at Parliament House who shouldn’t hang their head in shame this week, and who we cannot blame for the absolute dysfunction that this navel-gazing festival has turned into, is independent MLA Justine Davis.
She has at least tried to take the community’s concerns and their questions to the fat cats who run this place.
Labor on the other hand has been as bad as the governing CLP for the past eight days, interjecting and grandstanding and serving its own interests at taxpayer expense. While questions about the government’s flood response were warranted, taking up an entire day screaming and shouting about it did not help anyone.
It is so frustrating this year we have to wonder if the uniparty didn’t script this nonsense before it all began.
We’ve heard enough from Dheran Young for the next two years. Go back to the beach and have a nap mate, we’re done with your inane questions and political grandstanding at Estimates.
Labor has shown little regard for the issues that matter most to Territorians. While asking a small number of important questions, it has not been following up on poor answers, choosing instead to tie up valuable face-time with the real people who run this place – the top public servants – to needlessly argue with the CLP, bicker about whose government was worse and attempt to score cheap political points to an extremely small audience.
There are many real problems in this place that need to be addressed and squandering the one opportunity to get answers from those running it into the ground is being missed.
But it is the CLP’s show and they have not disappointed as the main dastardly villains in this program.
First, it was Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro blatantly lying about the number of recommendations from an “independent report” she commissioned into corrupt police hiring practices.
She repeatedly told the Estimates Committee there were only two recommendations from the Justice Blow report and that both have been implemented. Clearly a lie designed to escape having to answer why the other four recommendations have been thrown in the bin. But Labor didn’t ask because it somehow forgot how many recommendations there were.
Those other four recommendations included important measures such as requiring all senior police promotions be based on merit, that the person who makes the final call to hire someone not sit on the selection panel, and that the time-honoured police practice of keeping members in limbo on “acting” senior contracts be limited.
There was also a catch-all recommendation – that Lia wanted desperately to avoid being asked about – that suggested any of the other corrupt practices Blow identified, including mismanaged conflicts of interest at the highest levels of the NT Police that have continued to affect the culture and morale of the police force be dealt with appropriately. No chance anyone will hold the Chief Minister accountable for that or for lying to Parliament.
Then there was Big Bill Yan the next day who wowed us all with innovative techniques in the mixed medium of bullshit artistry. What he said at times made no sense, but he kept saying it anyway, knowing he was eating into crucial question time and with little regard to the inevitable public perception now that he is nothing more than an idiot who likes to hear himself talk (we’re not saying he is, but that’s the impression people would get from watching his Estimates performance).
But Monday night marked the lowest low for the merry CLP band of under-achievers.
Faced with the prospect of questions about an internal investigation into the suicide of an employee in his department due to an alleged toxic workplace, Josh Burgoyne filibustered his way out of taking any questions by insisting he give a 20-minute opening speech with only 10 minutes left to go for the day.
The lights were turned off promptly at 9:30 with no questions asked and no answers provided about any of the Department of Corporate and Digital Development’s suspicious management practices or why it was tasked with investigating itself.
Then on Tuesday afternoon, Jo Hersey pulled the same stunt to avoid taking any questions of substance on the goings-on in the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment. She gave an unnecessary opening address ripped right off the website of the OCPE and was assisted ably by Labor taking up an inordinate amount of time querying public swimming lessons before the public employment commissioner arrived.
Hersey took a few minutes to thank Nicole Hurwood for all her hard work over the year, then six minutes later and after a couple of light questions, thanked her again for showing up. She took a bow and was gone.
This has so far been the worst Estimates hearings in recent memory and that’s saying something.
If you don’t believe us, the struggling NT News, which last week assumed they would get enough crucial information from the hearings to keep everyone updated on an hourly basis, was forced to cancel its rolling coverage blog around the time Big Bill Yan was done toasting everyone with the steaming mug of bullshit he was spilling around.
There were no answers to be found anywhere and more troubling, not enough good questions to elicit them.
The last time we remember a good Estimates hearing was back in 2017 – the year most of the politicians pissed off and opened it up to the public.
The then-CLP opposition of two members (including Lia) and five independent MLAs walked out and refused to participate in the hearings because the then-Gunner Labor government cut the hours of hearings in half, while pledging to provide the other half later in the year.
While there were still Dorothy Dixers from the government members, the public did send in some decent questions free of political spin and some journalists used the time to grill the ministers and senior public servants about their ongoing corruption.
Even in more recent years, it appeared we had professionals asking informed and important questions of a government that despised scrutiny but was forced to provide answers.
That is what Estimates is supposed to be about – getting answers from the most senior public servants who hide from the public the rest of the year. But what this show has become should be an embarrassment for our elected officials. We suspect however both Labor and the CLP think things are going well and the show, as is, must go on.
Absolutely agree with the entire opinion piece. Justine Davis was exemplary. Lia behaved petulantly but that seems to be her new demeanour. The rest just follow the chief. Labor couldn’t have been weaker if they tried.
I’d say bring on an election but that’s not a prospect that brings any comfort.