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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 437 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
looking at all those factors, which I have enumerated many times in this place - maintaining the ACT community's investment in the asset which is ACTEW, ensuring that ACTEW is able to position itself to weather the storm of competition which will shortly break over this country and ensuring that ACTEW faces the minimal exposure to risk. Those are the main elements that ACTEW has to consider in the exercise before it at the moment.
At the end of the day, another advantage of AGL is that it is an Australian owned company. It is a company of longstanding. It is the second oldest Australian company, I understand. It is also one which has a substantial presence in the ACT. There happen to be additionally good reasons - - -
Mr Quinlan: Which eliminates everybody else, does it not?
MR HUMPHRIES: If that were the only criterion, Mr Quinlan, then yes. But it is not.
Mr Quinlan: If it were one of the criteria, it still eliminates everybody.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, it does not. If you had to satisfy all the criteria, then it would eliminate them. But it was not a criterion which was essential for anyone to have to meet.
Mr Hargreaves: It was a core criteria.
MR HUMPHRIES: Again there is this wave of criticism: "We don't like what you've decided". We put this process on the table some time ago. We explained what we were doing. Where were the Opposition's criticisms then about this process? Why did they not ask, "Why are you going about this the wrong way"?
Mr Quinlan: How many questions have I asked on expressions of interest in this place?
MR HUMPHRIES: It is like 20 questions. "Guess what I am. Am I a plant? Am I a frog? Am I a box?". I keep asking the questions and all I get is a no. It would be nice if you gave me a clue at some stage as to what you want to do with this.
Mr Quinlan: I have said that many times in this place, Mr Humphries.
MR HUMPHRIES: You have given us a partial answer.
Mr Quinlan: Just look at option one in the expressions of interest.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am happy to talk about option one.
Mr Quinlan: You have caught up with it, have you? You did not know it yesterday.
MR HUMPHRIES
: I am happy to talk about option one, but I repeat: What the Government wants to do is facilitate an assessment of the best possible option to deal with ACTEW's present predicament. It has put this on the table in a way which
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