Page 483 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 May 1992
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MRS CARNELL (3.53): Mr Connolly has very well made a whole speech totally unnecessary, which we are very pleased about; but I would like to use the opportunity to bring - - -
Mr Lamont: It would save a lot of time, because most of your speeches are unnecessary.
MRS CARNELL: Thank you. Time is the important thing, Mr Connolly. I think we would be very pleased to accept an inquiry. It is what we set out to do this afternoon with the MPI. What is absolutely essential, though, is that the inquiry be carried out in a timely fashion. It really needs to be done quickly. It is essential that CWC Auto Services be allowed to stay while the inquiry is going on. It is essential that the chairperson be independent and acceptable to the residents. The residents are the people that we all should be worrying about in this whole process. We should be making sure that Ainslie Village is a happy place where people want to live, and that the services provided to them are appropriate.
The problems that have occurred, I hope, will be sorted out in this inquiry. I think Mr Connolly's comments earlier that it is normal or it is acceptable to have an executive chairman are a little bit unusual. In the private sector executive chairpeople normally are certainly not used. The major reason for that is not that the people involved may or may not be inappropriate or may behave in an unusual fashion. It is just that it always creates a stench; it always creates a thought that somebody might be misleading a board. That may not always be the case, but I would like to bring to the Minister's attention that it is not a normal procedure in private enterprise. I commend the Minister on the setting up of the committee.
MR DE DOMENICO (3.55): What my colleague Mrs Carnell said and to a certain extent what Mr Connolly said make my speech irrelevant. Some people might think that all my speeches are irrelevant. In this instance with Ms Follett - - -
Ms Follett: We would never say so.
MR DE DOMENICO: I thank my colleagues, even those on the other side of the house. We are delighted that sanity has prevailed in this instance. It just goes to show you - and I mean this sincerely - that this Assembly is eminently more sane and perhaps all sorts of other things that the former Assemblies were not.
I am delighted that the views of the residents will be taken into account. I think the most important thing to come out of this MPI is that, notwithstanding that we tend to hear the word "consultation" from time to time, this perhaps is one of those examples where consultation will take place. We are delighted about that.
I endorse the comment made by my colleague Mrs Carnell that it is very unusual, to say the least, in the private sector and in other areas that an executive chairman is also a managing director, so to speak, and also that executive chairmen and managing directors tend to gain other monetary benefits from time to time in the things that they executively chair, manage or direct. I have said that as delicately as I can. I am delighted that the Government has seen fit now to conduct this inquiry. We support it. I am sure the residents are delighted that at least they have got what they wanted - an independent inquiry. May it report very quickly and may the residents continue to be as happy as they were before the concerns were expressed.
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