Page 2470 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 14 November 1989
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anyone could suggest that a valuation set by the Australian Valuation Office could be at half price. I would have thought that any such allegations should be directed to the Australian Valuation Office.
Apart from answering questions in this place on several occasions on the matter, I have also provided a briefing on the matter to representatives of the Residents Rally party, at their request. Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen sat with me in my office for about one hour and were provided with information from the files on the matter. The officials present were the secretary to my department, Mr Townsend, and two first assistant secretaries, Mr Guild and Dr Adrian. We also explained to Mr Collaery the status and origin of the leaked document on which he based his allegations about the valuation. That meeting was positive and conciliatory.
In relation to our industry assistance policy, the Government has undertaken to provide full public disclosure of any specific assistance given by the ACT Government to individual businesses. This would include details regarding the name of the recipient and the quantity and nature of the assistance given. However, at no stage have we given a commitment to release commercial-in-confidence information or other information held on files which documents material pertinent to commercial negotiations.
Nevertheless, to ensure accountability we have undertaken to provide private access to the material to party leaders in the Assembly in order to allow them to assure themselves that matters have been handled properly. We are also happy to provide detailed briefings by officials to party leaders. This process was followed in relation to the Revlon case.
In short, Mr Speaker, Fia Cumming has been told lies by her sources and has, without checking the facts, repeated those lies. I thought that Ms Cumming would have learnt from her embarrassment in badly reporting the National Aquarium case. As Mr Humphries said in this Assembly on 1 November, in presenting the committee report on the National Aquarium, members have a responsibility to check their facts before making wild allegations. I am pleased that that course is generally followed by members of the press gallery and that there is a commendable commitment among those professionals to checking and establishing facts.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal statement. I claim to have been misrepresented. Mr Speaker, there was a thinly veiled reference by the Deputy Chief Minister in his statement that a reporter had been told lies. Those of us on this side of the house are likely to be in the direction of that allegation. I will take that allegation, and I will respond to it.
The first point was that the Deputy Chief Minister implied he had made a file available. I claim to have been
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