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Colleagues have mentioned that ACTEW is one of the most sensitive areas of our assets, and that is true. It is one of our biggest industrial organisations. It has the potential to do significant environmental damage. We environmentalists who are concerned about those issues, and others who are not in this place, would want a full examination of ACTEW’s capabilities before there are any changes of the order of those which are proposed here and which really are driven, as I have said, by this ideological bent. Some would say, “The Government is entitled to do this if it wants to manage a particular facility in a particular way. The Executive ought to be entitled to do that”. That might be an entitlement they have to earn. They can earn that only through a process where there is clear and complete discovery of the workings of the organisation and there is proof of the claims made by the Executive. The Minister in this case has failed completely. He has not been able to demonstrate - - -

Mr Hird: You have not been listening, Wayne, as usual.

MR BERRY: Listen as I might, I could never get any information out of it. All I could get - - -

Mr De Domenico: Did you turn up to the briefings?

MR BERRY: I heard a little bit of rhetoric, which I think I understood. I heard, “I do not know”. I think I understood that. I heard, “I do not know; I do not care”. I understood that. This Minister has failed dismally to bring a complete package of information to the community that would even make them interested in, let alone come to a decision on, whether ACTEW ought to be corporatised or not. That is when we have to consider how we deal with the issue.

It is very clear that in this place there are divided opinions about it. We went through our examination of ACTEW in the past and we came to the conclusion that it could continue to provide excellent service to the community without going through this unnecessary rigmarole. I think there are some people in ACTEW who think it might be in their interests for it to go down that path. Unions are concerned that it might not be. Mr De Domenico makes great play of a couple of letters he has received from the unions; but what he said, in all the rhetoric, is that nothing will change, but any changes will be made under the enterprise bargaining arrangement after we corporatise. If I were a union official around here, and knowing Mr De Domenico, I would be wetting myself. I would not go down that path until I had all the information on the table. That is what they are saying; so do not lead us astray. The community in the Australian Capital Territory deserves a full and open inquiry into this issue before we move.

Mr De Domenico: You sat on your hands for five years and did nothing.

MR BERRY: Because nothing was necessary and nobody ever made out a case. In all your carping and whingeing from the Opposition, Mr De Domenico, you did not make out a case. Now, when you have your hands on the levers, you still cannot make out a case; so stop trying to kid us. What the community deserves in relation to their asset, ACTEW, is the opportunity for every activist who has an interest in the services which are provided by that organisation to see the innards of the organisation by way of an open committee inquiry process. That can be provided by this place.

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