Page 4457 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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MR STANHOPE: to the reason that the Liberal Party are so interested in this subject, and the reason they are interested in it is that in a $64 million capital budget, compared with our $780 million budget, they can only deliver 60 per cent of it.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! Resume your seat, thank you. Mr Seselja, a supplementary question?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, how will you ensure that the $243 million blow-out in the cost of the construction of Cotter Dam will be the end of the blow-outs?
MR STANHOPE: It is not a blow-out; construction has not even started. It is a cost. There has been no blow-out at all. It is a bit like asking, Mr Seselja, about the estimate of the cost by the Liberal Party in government of the GDE, a road that is going to be delivered at just over $200 million. Mr Hargreaves might remember the cost. The Liberal Party’s initial estimate of the cost of the GDE, I think, was less than $50 million. Is Mr Seselja standing here and saying that they would have delivered a four-lane GDE for $50 million? That was his initial estimate.
Mr Hanson: Mr Speaker, on a point of order as to relevance: the question was clearly about the Cotter Dam, not about the GDE.
MR SPEAKER: Chief Minister, let us focus on the question.
MR STANHOPE: I am. I am focusing on the issue of blow-out as against estimate. The dam cost is an estimate—an estimate delivered independently by a statutory authority. With respect to the cost estimate, just so that Mr Seselja understands this, Mr Hargreaves informs me that the Liberal Party’s estimate of the cost of the GDE in government, in its last gasp, as it took its last breath in 2001, was $32 million. Mr Seselja sits here and tells us that he, the Liberals, would have delivered a $200 million road for $32 million? What balderdash!
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, resume your seat.
Supermarkets—competition policy
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the minister responsible for competition policy in the ACT, and relates to the Martin review. I refer to the comments made by Mr Ken Henrick, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Retail Grocers, which were published on Friday, 9 October on the ABC website. Mr Henrick said that the Martin review, if adopted, would “effectively rule out every family-owned business in Australia” from entering the ACT market. Mr Henrick went on to say that the recommendations from the review would “also facilitate the entry of foreign competitors while keeping out Australian family-owned businesses”. Treasurer, will you, as minister responsible for competition policy, ensure that family-owned businesses have an opportunity to enter the ACT grocery market?
MS GALLAGHER: Yes, of course, Mrs Dunne. Indeed, in the last year I have met with a number of businesses who have been concerned about their ability to enter the
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