Page 1482 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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Ms Gallagher: You wish we had. You wish we had.
MR SESELJA: Sorry, I did not quite get that. I do not wish—I wish you had done your job, Chief Minister, on this issue. Then maybe you would not have to turn around—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock, please. Mr Seselja, resume your seat. Ms Gallagher, please do not interject across the chamber. Mr Seselja, you are not having a conversation with Ms Gallagher about this. You are not having a direct conversation. You are addressing your comments through the chair. Will you continue and do that, please.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Through you, we wish the Chief Minister had done her job on this issue. We wish the shareholders had done their job. If they had done their job, perhaps we would not have seen the massive cost blowouts that we have seen in relation to Cotter Dam. We are now told by representatives of ACTEW that there has been no budget blowout or that this does not represent a budget blowout. When you start with a price of around $150 million and end up at $409 million and counting, that looks like a pretty big budget blowout to me.
They have not done their job and they have failed to take responsibility as representatives of the community who are seeing their water prices go up and up and up. This is where I think the dismay comes from the community. They see that this government has allowed a situation to develop where one of their own ministers describes—one of the ministers of this government—this salary as obscene. Yet it has happened on the watch of this Chief Minister and this Deputy Chief Minister. They have allowed a situation to arise where one of their own ministers, a representative of their own government, believes that the salary of the managing director of ACTEW is obscene.
That is why this motion should be supported, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is because the shareholders have not done their jobs. So what we are asking through this motion, what Mr Hanson is asking through his motion, is that the Auditor-General be allowed to do the job that the shareholders have not done—to scrutinise what is going on, to make sure that taxpayers are getting the absolute best value for money. Taxpayers in the ACT, water users in the ACT, have been paying far too much for far too long. We in the opposition support the ICRC’s approach that there should be cuts in water prices, that there should be cuts in water charges.
As part of that, we need to look at the cost structure of ACTEW. Is the money being spent well? Are they managing projects well? Is the board making good decisions? Are the shareholders doing their job on behalf of the community? These are the questions that should be looked at. This is why this motion should be supported.
Of course, the support of the Greens minister for the amendment I think is unfortunate, though not in any way unexpected. We have seen this time and time again from the four Greens that used to be in the Assembly and we are seeing it again from the one
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