Page 2283 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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I took a question on notice because the documents had not been released by the LDA because the LDA thought they were commercially sensitive—and they were, and they are. But having regard to the high levels of interest in Kama in this matter, I released the documents to the committee so that you could all see them. They are now part of the documentation of this place; they are available to members of this place. They will reveal and prove everything that I just read into the record. In the document that I tabled, nothing is covered up. There was no sale; I did not cut it off; the land had not been transferred; there was no valuation; and, as the deputy chief executive says, it was quite reasonable for me—as Chief Minister and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, seeking a place to establish an indigenous specific drug rehabilitation facility—to hold this property until that decision was made.
That is what I have done. It was quite appropriate; it was all above board. There is no conspiracy. The government has never received advice that it was not appropriate. We may very well in the next six weeks or so when the cabinet submission is completed. It is quite possible that we will receive that advice in the next six weeks. Who knows? That is why we are going through a rigorous process; that is why we did not pre-empt it. That is why I did not pre-empt it or even express a view—because I do not know what Kama looks like. It might be completely and hopelessly inadequate for all I know. That is why we employ experts who can advise us in these things—expert health officials, people experienced in the running of drug rehabilitation facilities to give us the advice that we need before we make a precipitous decision about where to locate a facility as significant as this.
Those are the facts in the matter. There is no conspiracy here; there is no cover-up. Not a single document that has been sought has not been released. Every single document in the government’s possession in relation to this matter, as sought, requested or identified by the opposition in its questions, has been provided—every single one. Mr Seselja is simply wrong. He has got the wrong end of the stick. He ran down a burrow without knowing what he was doing. All the documents were released; there is no advice. The reason that the mystery document containing the advice that the site was not appropriate has not been released is that there is no such document, as Ms Daveron has just said. Those are the facts. You are just wrong.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.5—Department of Treasury—$49,205, 000 (net cost of outputs), $31,821,000 (capital injection), $35,800,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $116,826,000.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (10.04): As you have indicated, a total of $116 million is proposed for appropriation, compared with $89.868 million in the Appropriation Bill of 2006. This increase from the appropriation in the 2006-07 financial year is due to a capital injection of $31.821 million. This includes $12 million for a loan facility for Community Housing Canberra and $15 million for a fleet financing facility detailed on pages 73 to 74 of budget paper No 4.
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