Page 1180 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 24 June 1992
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Milk Authority
MR WESTENDE: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Urban Services. I refer the Minister to an article on the front page of the Canberra Times today in which it was announced that Mr Michael Sinclair had stood aside as chairman of the ACT Milk Authority, reportedly because of financial problems arising out of his accountancy practice. The Minister is reported to have kindly offered to restore Mr Sinclair to the position of chairman when and if he gets his affairs sorted out. Can the Minister confirm that the offer made is true? If so, how long does he have in mind for Mr Sinclair to get things sorted out? Who will be acting chairman in the meantime?
MR CONNOLLY: The report on the front page of this morning's paper did give me some concern. A person who accepts a job to chair or serve on a government committee, for which they receive remuneration but a remuneration often well below what they would get otherwise, comes into the public eye and so their private affairs, which would otherwise be their private affairs, can be the subject of some public agitation. Mr Sinclair and I spoke yesterday afternoon. He was aware that there would be some speculation as to his private financial affairs and he offered to stand aside as chairman of the Milk Authority.
Under the Milk Authority Act a person is ineligible for appointment, or to serve either as a member or as the chair, if they are formally involved in a bankruptcy proceeding. That is not the case with Mr Sinclair. However, to avoid embarrassment to the authority, which he has served very well as chair and which, in my view, has done quite a good job in keeping milk prices low in Canberra, he offered to stand aside. I think that was an appropriate course of action for him to take and I accepted that offer.
It should be stressed that he has not reached any point under which he is ineligible to serve. Subject to his financial affairs in his private business, which is his private business, being sorted out - if there is no statutory reason why he could not continue to serve - I would be happy to have him back serving the community on that authority. His private affairs now can be sorted out, absent from the public gaze and absent from any suggestion that it could impinge upon his role as chair of the authority or the authority's work. In the period in which he is not acting as chair, the normal process would be that the deputy chair would act as chair, and the deputy chair is Mr Tony Luchetti.
ACTION Bus Drivers
MR STEVENSON: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Terry Connolly, and concerns statements, recent and not so recent, regarding the ACT taxpayers subsidising ACTION at about $1m per week. I have been made aware of concerns by some ACTION drivers who feel that some of the cause of this may be directed towards them and what they are doing; that it might be their responsibility in some way. Could the Minister give some indication of the breakdown of the $1m between administration and production costs, and whether the ACTION bus drivers are in any way to blame for any increases?
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