Page 2413 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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believes the prices asked are well below market value, possibly half real value ... Rental is fully tax deductable ... we are pleased to consider other assistance once Revlon is committed to proceeding in the ACT.
I ask the Minister: what is correct - the valuation or the statement of 29 January 1989 by a senior official that the prices asked are well below market value, that statement being made after the valuation advice, as you know, was received in the department?
MR WHALAN: I would just like to refer to the briefing note. Mr Collaery knows that it is not a briefing note that would be prepared for the appropriate Minister.
Mr Collaery: I don't know that.
MR WHALAN: Yes, you do, because you went through the file, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: I did not. I have not touched the file.
MR WHALAN: Can I tell you, Mr Speaker, that at the specific request of Mr Collaery, who sought to verify this particular document that had been leaked to him - and I do not know who leaked it to him or what his secret sources are - I was quite happy to cooperate with Mr Collaery's request. I took him to the office; we had the files brought in; and he was satisfied that the document that he had was a photocopy of the document that was on the file.
Mr Collaery: Was I given the file?
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, this morning we saw Mr Collaery make a reflection about some of my departmental officers. He said, "I was allowed to sort of look over somebody's shoulder at a file", as though he was in some way inhibited or prevented from looking at the file. We were, in fact, sitting around the table. It was for quite a lengthy period that we sat around the table, and I thought that it was a reasonably convivial occasion. Every question that was presented by Mr Collaery was addressed by the officer, opening the file at whatever page Mr Collaery wanted, and Mr Collaery saw there documents which would not normally be made available in this Assembly because they contained information of a nature which is commercial-in-confidence. He was given every opportunity to examine the file, and he went away saying, "Thank you very much for that opportunity to examine the - - -"
Mr Collaery: I said, "Thanks for the beer".
MR WHALAN: I thought you were drinking wine, but if it was beer - - -
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