Page 5242 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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Dr Kinloch: Yes, I would welcome that. That would be good. What about Jervis Bay?
MR BERRY: Jervis Bay, of course, is a Commonwealth area; and, like the rest of south-east New South Wales, if there are any people in Jervis Bay who wish to use hospital services here they are able to do so under the same arrangements. They would otherwise use medical and health services in that region of New South Wales.
Public Works and Services Group Tenders
MR STEVENSON: My question is directed to Mr Connolly and it concerns a tender from the Public Works and Services Group for printing, warehousing and distribution of common use forms. The contract would amount to possibly over $100,000 over the time of the contract, which is in excess of one year. There is some concern from local printers about jobs like this going to other States. This one went to Sydney. Some of the local printers consider that it would be a better idea if such jobs were kept in Canberra for the benefit of local businesses and the local employment situation and to have a better chance of keeping the money in the ACT. I wonder whether Mr Connolly would be good enough to explain the policy.
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Stevenson for his question. This question arises from time to time. Mrs Nolan smiles over there. We went through this in some detail in the Estimates Committee. There is an agreement. While at first glance it would seem sensible that we have a policy of preference for ACT firms - and I can accept that at first glance it seems a sensible policy - there is an intergovernmental agreement that all State and Territory governments and the Federal Government are a party to that prevents that; that is, we have all agreed not to give preference to local producers.
We have all agreed to invite tenders for services on an open basis and effectively take the lowest tender. That does mean that sometimes Sydney firms, as in this case, or other firms - even Brisbane firms - will be the best tenderer, put in the best price and so get ACT Government work. On the other hand, an awful lot of ACT firms get Federal Government work because they put in the best tender price and they are here and they can service the local market. If that was not the case, given that perhaps the voters of the ACT sometimes can be overlooked, there would be an obvious temptation for any Federal government to focus its work away from Canberra to help whatever region it thought needed to be looked at.
On balance, I am confident that the ACT industry does better out of that no-preference agreement because of the large amount of Commonwealth government work that we get - disproportionately above what we would get if it were doled
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