Page 2418 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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Directorate, with 307 staff, paid $6 million for shared services. Then again, approximately 80 per cent of Icon Water’s employees are either fully or predominantly field based. If we look at other agencies with primarily field-based positions, we find ACTION, with 859 staff, paid $1.9 million for shared services in 2016-17, which begs the question why Icon Water, with 388 full-time equivalent staff, paid a staggering $20 million. The Labor government has brushed aside legitimate questions regarding value for money.
The opposition has been judicious in dealing with this issue. We have pursued information through the estimates process and through correspondence with Icon Water. We have still not been provided with essential information relating to the two shared services agreements.
It is also, of course, important to note that, whilst Icon Water has this so-called mandate to prop up ActewAGL, the other 50 per cent owners of ActewAGL are not propping up ActewAGL in the same way. In effect, by the ACT government, through Icon Water, putting $27 million a year into ActewAGL, they are giving a portion of that inequity to the non-government owner of ActewAGL. They are, in effect, propping up the other 50 per cent owner of ActewAGL. That is wrong. It is wrong for the taxpayer to do that. We believe it is vital that all the information about this agreement become public, and that is why we have moved the motion today.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism and Major Events) (6.06): I move:
Omit all words after paragraph (1)(c), substitute:
“(d) that the inclusion of Icon Water in these government accountability processes provides a high level of scrutiny and allows for the disclosure of information that is in the public’s interest where it does not unreasonably impinge upon the corporation’s operations as a commercial entity;
(e) that the relationship between Icon Water and the ACT Government differs fundamentally from government directorates, in that Icon has a board and management which intentionally operates on a commercial footing;
(f) that in order to ensure effective commercial management of Icon Water, its shareholder Ministers provide approval only on a narrow range of significant decisions such as board appointments and major purchases or divestments;
(g) that the services provided to Icon Water under its current corporate and customer services agreements are not matters that fall within the scope of these arrangements, and that these contract arrangements are further not subject to the ACT Government’s procurement rules because of Icon Water’s status as a commercial entity;
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