Page 4177 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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will be independently administered by the board of trustees, with government and company representatives and an independent chair. There will be ample opportunity for consultation throughout that process.
Rather than considering an MPI purporting to condemn the Follett Government for an alleged failure, we should be considering an MPI congratulating and commending the Follett Government for successful negotiations with an insurance company that was prepared to return profits to the community - negotiations that have been carried out in a good spirit and that have, as I said before, brought home the bacon in terms of a successful result for the Canberra community.
MR STEFANIAK (3.46): Firstly, I think a couple of people or organisations should be commended here. I would commend Dr Kinloch and the Residents Rally for bringing on this MPI, because this is a matter of public importance, more so perhaps for what exactly has happened rather than the context of the MPI. There are a couple of things that Mr Connolly said which I would certainly agree with. It is rather rare these days to see a company, a corporate body, give money back because it has made a windfall profit which it itself has stated was, in fact, an overpayment. It is a big profit; it is $40m, made in Canberra.
I am sure all members of this house would join in commending the NRMA for their actions in this regard and disclosing that they have a windfall $40m overpayment which they want to have ploughed back into the community - the community which they serve so very well. So, I think there should be lots of bouquets in this particular MPI to the NRMA for their actions, and I certainly commend them for their most responsible actions in this regard.
Dr Kinloch: Hear, hear!
MR STEFANIAK: I note that my friend Dr Kinloch wholeheartedly endorses that. Mr Connolly also has talked of one of the big problems in the 1980s, and that, indeed, was corporate greed. I forget the name of the fellow in the film who said, "Greed is good". Greed is not good; greed, in fact, is evil. There has to be responsibility as well, and the NRMA has certainly stood out in terms of being very responsible in relation to ploughing this money back into the community.
The Alliance Government was certainly notified of this; I understand that it was back in about April of this year. And now it seems that some steps are being taken, finally, by this Government and also by the NRMA, in relation to this windfall, to plough it back into the community. There is, I think, some merit in some of the statements made by Dr Kinloch in his MPI speech, in terms of where and how this money should be used. Perhaps his criticism of the
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