Page 3535 - Week 09 - Thursday, 23 August 2018

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Questions without notice

Chief Minister’s Charitable Fund—Hands Across Canberra

MR COE: My question is to the Chief Minister. Last month you announced that Hands Across Canberra will administer the Chief Minister’s Charitable Fund. What tender process was undertaken in order to select Hands Across Canberra as the organisation to run your charitable fund?

MR BARR: There was not a tender process.

MR COE: What process did you go through in order to select Hands Across Canberra, and has an agreement been struck with them already?

MR BARR: I took a proposal through the budget process. I announced, as part of the parliamentary agreement two years ago, the intention to establish a charitable fund. The government’s view, given our longstanding involvement with Hands Across Canberra and its established reputation in the community, was that establishing a whole new entity to manage the fund would be a duplication and unnecessary. It was a decision of the budget process to allocate a one-off payment, an endowment, to establish the fund, which is modelled on the Lord Mayor’s charitable fund in Melbourne. There is a deed of agreement between the ACT government and Hands Across Canberra for the management of the fund.

Mr Coe: Point of order.

MADAM SPEAKER: Point of order, Mr Coe.

Mr Coe: It is on relevance. The question was about what process was undertaken to select Hands Across Canberra; it was not about the decision to establish a charitable fund. Whilst the Chief Minister has gone through the process for deciding to go ahead with a charitable fund, he has not yet addressed the question about how he chose Hands Across Canberra.

MR BARR: I took a submission to cabinet, and cabinet determined that Hands Across Canberra would operate the charitable organisation. That was part of the parliamentary agreement from two years ago.

Ms Lawder interjecting—

MR BARR: It was part of the parliamentary agreement from two years ago where we committed to establishing an independent charitable fund.

Mr Coe interjecting—

MR BARR: A fund modelled on the highly successful Lord Mayor’s fund in Melbourne.

MR PARTON: Does the ACT government have an actual contract with Hands Across Canberra?


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