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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3201 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

to the community on at the last election. It was not an issue that most of us in this place went to the community on at the last election. We did not go in and say, "I would just like to warn you that the sale of ACTEW might be coming up and we might need to make a very important decision about it". We did not say that. We said, "It is not on the agenda". Of course, it was not on the agenda because members of this Government know that if it had been on the agenda they might have been in a bit of difficulty.

Let me cite one example. The State election campaign in Tasmania was fought on the issue of the privatisation of the Hydro-Electric Corporation. The Government there had some guts, unlike this mob opposite, because they put a proposition to the electorate which was the same as the proposition this Government is putting now. In Tasmania, the former Liberal Government put the proposition that they needed to sell the corporation to retire the State's debt. That is what the former Liberal Government in Tasmania did. They were honest. They put it on the table. They asked the people to decide in an election, and guess what? They lost, Mr Speaker. So let us reflect on that when we think about the Government's motives and the way they have approached this whole debate about ACTEW.

Moving on, we knew that there was a real problem coming towards us in relation to privatisation. That is why the Labor Party in this place moved amendments to the Territory Owned Corporations Act that would require the Assembly to specifically approve a sale of a Territory-owned corporation. Those amendments were supported by the Assembly. But when we move to this Bill, the ACTEW (Transfer Scheme) Bill, what do we see? We see clauses in that Bill that specifically override those amendments that we made to the Territory Owned Corporations Act. They specifically override them. Instead, what the Government proposes as an alternative is an offer whereby the Chief Minister says, "Trust me, I'll make sure you guys have the final say. Don't worry that I am legislating away your rights under the Territory Owned Corporations Act to require a resolution to sell. Trust me". That is what the Government is saying.

Ms Carnell: Garbage.

MR CORBELL: The Chief Minister can yell "garbage" across the chamber if she likes, but she knows that at the end of the day, if this Bill is passed with that clause in it removing and overriding the right in the Territory Owned Corporations Act of the Assembly to decide the sale, she can do what she likes, that there is no legislative requirement for this Assembly to approve the sale. She knows that, Mr Speaker. They know that. They may feign mock surprise over there, but the reality is that that is their agenda.

Mr Speaker, let us move to the issue of the study that the Government has used to justify the sale. The Chief Minister said that the scoping study would look at the question of ACTEW's potential privatisation and other options objectively and openly and then the Government would look at all the options. That is what the Chief Minister said.

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