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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (5 June) . . Page.. 1931 ..


MR STANHOPE (continuing):

structure. That is why I will be making major announcements about changes to the portfolio in a couple of weeks time.

Canberra Tourism and Events Corporation

MS TUCKER: My question is directed to Mr Quinlan, as Treasurer and minister responsible for CTEC. Minister, you would be aware of the Auditor-General's report on the operation of the Public Access to Government Contracts Act that has just been released. The Auditor found that the act is not effective and is not being administered effectively. Of particular interest is the use of confidentiality clauses in contracts. Of the 41 contracts containing confidentiality clauses submitted to the Auditor in the year ended 21 December 2001, 24 of them were for CTEC, and just about all of them related to the 2001 V8 supercar race.

The Auditor also found that all the CTEC contracts did not comply with the model confidentiality clause in the act, in that the kind of information to be kept confidential is described too broadly and the grounds for confidentiality are not specified properly. The Auditor also pointed out that, under section 14 of the act, a confidentiality clause in a government contract has no effect if it does not comply with the model confidentiality clause. This therefore means that all the CTEC contracts mentioned in his report cannot legally be kept confidential.

Minister, will you now table all these contracts so that the Assembly can be given a true idea of the cost of the V8 supercar race?

MR QUINLAN: Ms Tucker, I will have a look at that. I have to say that I have only a general impression of what is contained in that audit report. I have not had time to either read it or be briefed on it in detail; but, yes, we will take a look at that for you, Ms Tucker.

MS TUCKER: Given that the contracts referred to by the Auditor-General were for the 2001 supercar race and that, since then, new contracts would have been drawn up for the 2002 race next weekend, can you tell the Assembly whether CTEC has ensured that these contracts comply with the Public Access to Government Contracts Act?

MR QUINLAN: No, but I will get back to you on that.

Nature conservation

MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services. Minister, before last October's election, Labor made a commitment to provide an additional $1.5 million to nature conservation over the next three years. Can the minister tell the Assembly how the government is delivering on this promise?

MR WOOD

: Mr Speaker, as it is World Environment Day, might I join in the general salutation "Happy World Environment Day", with which I have been happily met in a number of places today. At lunchtime today, I launched the Stanhope government's plan for the environment, a sustainable bush capital for the next millennium. The government is committed to ensuring that Canberra's bush capital image is preserved and


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