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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1247 ..
Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: May I point out that - - -
MR WOOD: He will not pull her up, no. He will not do it; do not worry.
MR SPEAKER: Order! We have not had - - -
MR WOOD: There are two rules that apply here. There are two rules; we know that.
MR SPEAKER: There will be three rules in a moment.
MR WOOD: I can live with that.
MR SPEAKER: You may suffer from the third.
MR WOOD: I have no doubt I might, yes.
MR SPEAKER: We have not had interjections this morning. I would remind the house that interjections are out of order and that Mr Wood has the floor.
MR WOOD: It depends where they come from.
MR SPEAKER: No, it does not.
MR WOOD: Well, let us get on with it. That $200m, that 12 per cent, from ACTEW tells the story of the Government's failure, and that is what this budget is about. The money from ACTEW has disguised the problem that we have. It has been claimed that this is not going to have any impact. It may be that ACTEW is in a pretty sound situation. I note that one of its executives indicated that they may have to do some borrowing. Maybe they have had something in the hollow log, but bear this in mind: ACTEW is now entering a very competitive phase of its life. It has to face competition from other suppliers of electricity. It is going to need to be in a strong position to compete. Its position over the next two or three years is going to be quite severely weakened by this impost on the part of the Government.
Mr Kaine: That is rubbish, Bill, and you know it.
MR WOOD: No; it is going to be weakened.
Mr Kaine: Rubbish!
MR WOOD: Do you mean to tell me that taking $173m out of it this year and more next year is going to have no impact at all on ACTEW? I cannot believe that.
Mr Kaine: Not on its trading ability.
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