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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (4 May) . . Page.. 1308 ..


MR HUMPHRIES: That was certainly a very weighty question, Mr Osborne, and I thank you for it. I do not know what those provisions of the international covenant say. I will have to go and refresh my memory about what they say. I have not brought a copy of it down with me, unfortunately. I left it up in my room. Mr Osborne's question does raise a revisitation of the issues that were canvassed in the Bill itself. Whether the Act which has now been passed facilitates those goals or not I could not say. I will say that there is clearly a problem with the legislation as it now stands. That is something that I believe we have to go back and address, Mr Speaker. I hope that the members of this place will see the need to do so as a requirement that falls on all of our shoulders and that we will discuss this matter from the position of attempting to resolve what is obviously a vexing problem from the point of view of at least the court.

Bruce Stadium

MR BERRY: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, can you tell the Assembly whether the former chief executive of your department, Mr John Walker - the one who described himself as the vice-president, now an employee of Bankers Trust - had any involvement with the Bruce Stadium redevelopment project during his time with the ACT Government? Has Mr Walker had any involvement in the financing arrangements for the stadium since leaving the employ of the ACT Government? In particular, has Mr Walker been involved in any way in bringing Deutsche Bank into the view of the Government as a possible brokerage agent for arranging private sector finance for the Bruce Stadium redevelopment? What payments has the Government made to Mr Walker or to any organisation with which he has been associated since he left the employ of the ACT government service?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I think that Mr Berry should have read a correction in the Canberra Times this morning before he asked that question. Deutsche Bank do not own Bankers Trust in Australia and anyone who reads the financial media would know that that is the case. In fact, Bankers Trust Australia is currently out to be sold. Mr Walker has had no involvement in financing since he left the ACT Government. Obviously, he would have been involved in Bruce Stadium and probably lots of other things when he was here, but he has not had any involvement in the Bruce Stadium issue since he left.

Energy Efficiency Ratings

MS TUCKER: My question is directed to the Minister for Urban Services. Minister, it is now nearly five weeks since the Energy Efficiency Ratings (Sale of Premises) Act came into effect, but it appears that many real estate agents and private house sellers are not complying with the law. My office analysed the real estate advertisements for ACT properties in last Saturday's Canberra Times. It showed that only 73 per cent of advertisements included an energy rating, 21 per cent had a rating pending and 6 per cent had no mention of a rating. This is a little better than the numbers in advertisements in previous weeks. Of particular concern is that nearly half of the private house


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