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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 8 Hansard (26 October) . . Page.. 2078 ..

Mr Kaine: But the former Speaker sat up there and did not say anything, because she was the Speaker.

MRS CARNELL: Absolutely. Note, Mr Speaker, that there is no censure motion here at all. We believe that the Opposition has every right to bring forward any information on this issue. That is what we are asking them to do today. What have they brought forward? Absolutely nothing! I think that really underlines this whole debate. There is nothing. Proper processes were followed - - -

Ms McRae: Why are you protesting? Why did you go to the Auditor-General? That is why you are carrying on.

MRS CARNELL: Because, Ms McRae, we believe that the sorts of slurs that you threw yesterday in this place were unacceptable in the extreme. We thought that you possibly had information that the public needed to know about. We thought that possibly there was information that should be on the public record, information bad enough to potentially hurt a small business in this town. We have asked for that information. That is what this debate is about. It is not a censure motion; it is a debate to get information on the table, and so far we have had absolutely not a jot, not one bit of information at all.

Let us hope that out of this whole debacle we actually get a set of guidelines, as I am sure we will from the Auditor-General, to overcome what would be a totally dreadful situation if the companies of partners or families of members cannot deal with the ACT Government in any capacity. That is what Ms Follett said earlier, which is fascinating, because at least two of those opposite have partners who work for the ACT Government in various guises. That is taxpayers' money. A comment was made earlier that it was inappropriate for Harold Hird and Associates to donate taxpayers' money to charity. I regularly donate money.

Ms Follett: Yes, but it is your own money.

MRS CARNELL: Why is it my money? It comes from the taxpayer. I earn it and I write a cheque for it. Harold Hird and Associates earned the money and donated it to charity. Fascinatingly, every time I donate to charity, indirectly I am donating taxpayers' money that I have earned. I think that is totally appropriate. What we have here is a situation where there is no evidence. Processes were followed, the Minister was at arm's length and at the end of the day we will end up with guidelines that hopefully mean that people can get on and do business and live in this city.

MR WHITECROSS (11.31): The speeches from Mr De Domenico and Mrs Carnell on this just show what we have been saying for the last fortnight, which is that they just do not get it. They just do not understand the proprieties of government, what government is about. They simply do not get it. Let us go back to the beginning and see whether we can give them a bit of a lesson. Let us talk about the tender process, and let us start by looking at the guidelines for the tender process. One of the things the guidelines say,

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