Page 1185 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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AUTHORITY TO RECORD AND BROADCAST PROCEEDINGS
Motion (by Mr Berry), by leave, agreed to:
That the Assembly authorises:
(1) the recording on video tape without sound by the Prime television network of question time, today, Tuesday, 11 May 1993; and
(2) the use by any television station of any part of the recorded proceedings in subsequent news, current affairs and documentary programs and not for the purposes of satire or ridicule.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Flag Contracts
MRS CARNELL: My question without notice is to the Chief Minister. I refer the Chief Minister to the tender for the manufacture of the ACT flag which was let to interstate firms in preference to a bid from a Canberra firm. I note that the criterion upon which the selection was made was best value for money. Do the Government's criteria for tenders take into account job creation and the economic development of Canberra, or is it simply based on a bottom line cost?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, in responding to Mrs Carnell's question I would like simply to comment that for a recently publicised Liberal function where members sought the services of some commercial interest they, in fact, took their business interstate as well, over the border to the Eagle Hawk Motel. In answering Mrs Carnell's question there are a few issues that I need to canvass, and the first of these is that the appropriate procedures in this matter were followed. I have been advised by my department that procedures relating to the selection of a suitable manufacturer are set down in three documents - first of all, the Government Procurement Agreement; secondly, the Treasury Directions; and, thirdly, the ACT Purchasing Manual.
Madam Speaker, I think it is also interesting to note that in May 1990 the ACT Government became a party to the Government Procurement Agreement. It was then known as the National Preference Agreement. It is significant, I think, to note that the Chief Minister at the time, the person who signed that agreement, was in fact Mr Kaine rather than me. As I am sure Mr Kaine appreciated at the time, that Government Procurement Agreement has eliminated the interstate application of preference schemes and any other form of discrimination that is based on the State of origin of goods and services. As I am sure Mr Kaine would have appreciated also, the ACT has a great deal to gain from that arrangement in that our firms can now tender, on an equal basis, for work outside of this Territory. So, Madam Speaker, those are the guidelines which apply in these kinds of tenders and there is a single criterion for tenders of this sort and that is, as Mrs Carnell has said, best value for money.
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