An opposition proposal for a dedicated Legislative Assembly committee to examine integrity in the ACT has been rejected by Labor and the Greens.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee put forward the motion for the standing committee, saying the ACT was the only jurisdiction in Australia that did not have such a committee.
"Just this year we have seen significant integrity issues surrounding the Campbell Primary modernisation project and the CIT contracts," she said.
"Integrity is too important for it to be looked at part time. The Canberra Liberals know there is a stench around this government and so does the Canberra community."
But the government manager of business Mick Gentleman said the already-existing justice and community safety committee included integrity within its scope.
Mr Gentleman said the committee worked in the same way as integrity committees in other jurisdictions. He said while other jurisdictions did have integrity committees they were not always stand-alone, pointing to Western Australia as an example.
"I think we should continue to allow the JACs committee to do their excellent work," he said.
This came after a failed motion from Ms Lee earlier this week where she called for an independent audit of the territory budget.
The opposition leader also gave her budget reply speech on Thursday afternoon where she called for a wide-ranging review of ACT government integrity.
The call for the review was prompted by an exhaustive assessment of the Queensland government's accountability and culture, which the state's premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, vowed to act on.
Ms Lee also announced she would take on a new shadow portfolio for housing affordability and choice.
"I commit to doing everything I can to ensure that housing affordability is a choice within the reach of every Canberran," she said.
In her speech, Ms Lee seized upon comments made by Chief Minister Andrew Barr on budget day where he said the government did not need to spend more money to deliver expanded services as the government was already meeting demand.
The government is expected to receive an extra $1 billion in revenue over the next two years due to being handed a larger share of goods and services tax revenue. This is because the ACT's population had been underestimated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics by more than 20,000.
Ms Lee pointed to issues in public housing, the health system, education and police to ask whether Mr Barr believed those services were meeting demand.
Mr Barr said the Opposition Leader had an opportunity to bring about a mature debate on fiscal policy but she had failed.
"The budget-in-reply was an opportunity for the opposition leader to drag a party infamous for "lower taxes, better services" economics back into a mature debate on fiscal policy in the territory," he said.
"Instead, we see that nothing has changed. A list of reviews and renamed shadow portfolios is not an economic and fiscal alternative, and this is another failed test for the Canberra Liberals."
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