Page 4216 - Week 13 - Thursday, 14 December 2006
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detailed at this point. I hope for the government’s sake that the market’s interest in the corporation is healthy, that the sales process occurs on schedule, and that the revenue received from the sale meets expectations.
It is hoped by the government that the 32 employees currently working at Rhodium will be absorbed by the new owner. However, the new owner ultimately will decide whether to keep those employees or make them redundant. Currently, eight staff with Rhodium have a right to return to ACT government positions. The ACT Department of Treasury plans to set up a committee that will look into how Rhodium’s current staff will be treated by their new owner once that is announced.
At the end of the day there are no guarantees in place concerning the welfare of 24 staff and contractors currently employed by Rhodium once the new owner is in place. Potentially that could result in a round of redundancies following the sale of the corporation. I implore the Treasurer and this government to do everything in their power to minimise the economic and social dislocation a transition such as that could have on employees of Rhodium and their families.
More generally, it is hoped that the new owner of Rhodium will still use the local area and its services. The corporation currently provides 4,300 vehicles, of which 1,100 are ACT government vehicles. Once sold, however, the primary concern being expressed by treasury is over the selling of current operating leases and the ongoing management of the ACT government vehicle fleet. I welcome more details from the Treasurer with respect to these issues, in particular how the government intends to ensure that these essential operational requirements will be handled with minimal financial and administrative cost.
Obviously, the main financial implication for the government in this piece of legislation will be the receipt of revenue from the sale of Rhodium once a private sector buyer is confirmed. Let us hope that this extra revenue is allocated and spent wisely because, unfortunately, this Labor government has a less than impressive record in wasting receipts from one-off sales of land and other assets, on further bloating the ACT public service and pursuing indulgent capital projects such as the arboretum and statues of former Labor ministers that contribute nothing towards improving essential services in the territory. I needed to get that line in somewhere today, so I thank Mr Mulcahy for giving me the opportunity.
The Territory-Owned Corporations Amendment Bill 2006 enables the sale of a territory entity that has long been considered as outside the sphere of core government business. It is testament to this government’s poor economic credentials that such an opportunity to streamline government has been missed for so long. Despite concerns about the future of 32 employees currently working at the corporation the bill is a positive, albeit belated, step towards streamlining the resources and improving the operational focus of the ACT government. As such the opposition supports the bill.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (5.24): It appears as though I will be out of line with everyone else in this place, as I intend to oppose this bill. The Territory-Owned Corporations Amendment Act 2006 sets the scene and clears the decks for the sale of Rhodium Asset Solutions Ltd. The repeal of item 3 of schedule 1 to the Territory-Owned Corporations Act means that the board of Rhodium is no longer
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