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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3579 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

The facts of the matter are that this group of ministers is responsible for this philosophy. They are all rusted onto it, and they have demonstrated their commitment to secrecy in the past. There is a tawdry litany of secret attempts by this government to dispose of important public assets. It is also an example of its dishonesty towards people in the community. The government had an undertaking with the McDonald family in writing that it would not enter into a joint venture without getting their approval. It is in the contract.

Mr Humphries: Prove it.

MR BERRY: It is in the contract.

Mr Humphries: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I ask Mr Berry to table the document he refers to. Table it, prove it, put the document where your mouth is. Show us you are not lying.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Mr Moore: Wait until he is a minister. He will last about two minutes with this sort of stuff.

MR BERRY: In 20 minutes I would do more than you, Mr Moore, so let's face the facts. Mr Speaker, the fact of the matter is that this was a disposal. It was in the face of an agreement with the land-holders at the time, who are still mightily offended by the dishonesty of this government. They are straightforward people who expect straightforward deals. Most of the time they deal with people on the basis of a handshake, but they had a contract with this government in which it said that it would seek the approval of the McDonald family before a joint venture was entered into.

Of course, the government did not do that, so they have mightily offended the land-holders. They even blew up machinery on the site and peppered the landscape with pieces of broken machinery. It sounds a little bit like the hospital implosion-there is a bit of a pattern to their behaviour. An inquiry has been conducted, on my understanding of it, and a report has been prepared on this fairly calamitous equipment failure, which has slowed down production at the site. So there is an ongoing matter of the management of the quarry and how the quarry will produce the promised results for the territory. It is a matter of the competence of Totalcare.

This bill makes it clear where Labor stands in relation to the disposal of assets. I know there is much snickering amongst the Liberals about this issue because they think the disposal of assets is fine, but the rest of the community does not and I do not. They know that something is wrong out at the Totalcare quarry, that it has been mismanaged and that something has been disposed of without the approval of this Assembly. As the principle of the amendments which were passed by Mr Corbell demanded, this clarifies the issue for good. There will be no more back doors for this government. They have exploited the last of that.

Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries ) adjourned to the next sitting.

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