Page 3375 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 September 1991
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MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.13): Mr Speaker, the Liberals, in opposition, oppose these Bills.
Mr Connolly: Even though the Liberals in government wanted to do it. That would be right.
MR KAINE: It is very interesting. I was waiting for Mr Connolly or one of his mates to jump in on that basis, because the Liberals, when in government, moved to establish these Bills because ACTEW was going to be corporatised. Now, this Government has decided not to proceed with the corporatisation, and yet they are handing over from the Minister to ACTEW - a government agency - the right and the power to make decisions on matters affecting the consumer out there.
Mr Connolly: It is all right for a company but not for a statutory authority.
MR KAINE: I know that Mr Connolly is going to be pretty obtuse about this, but the fact is that when we were moving to corporatise we were putting this body on a commercial basis. It had to make its decisions, within the general guidelines of government policy, as to how it was going to operate and supply power, water and sewerage services to the community at reasonable prices. Under those circumstances it was appropriate that commercial decisions, as I said, within the context of government policy, be made by the corporatised body. That is why we put these three Bills into effect.
What you have not done, Mr Connolly, is to think it through. You decided not to corporatise this body. Once you decide not to corporatise, you have to revisit the question of whether the Minister ought reasonably divest himself of the responsibility for making decisions about the scales of fees and charges. You have not thought it through. You step back a bit and agree to go ahead with the corporatisation of ACTEW and we will agree with the Minister abdicating from the responsibility of setting fees and charges that affect the consumer out there.
You want it both ways. You do not want to corporatise; you want to take $19m out of ACTEW so that it affects their ability to carry on their business, but you want to divest yourself of the responsibility as a Minister and the consequences of making decisions as a Minister about things like this and to give it to the board of ACTEW.
Well, the Liberals, in opposition, say to you Mr Connolly, "It is not on". If you will not allow them to get on with the business and run their enterprise in a commercial way, we will not agree with you that you should divest yourself of the responsibility and pass it on to the people who are managing ACTEW. You cannot have your cake and eat it, and that is why we do not support these Bills.
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