Page 1848 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 June 1993
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Not enough has been said also, Madam Speaker, about the fact that the ACT's legislation, the Territory Owned Corporations legislation and the TAB are now being held high by other States and Territories.
Mr Berry: Liberals.
MR DE DOMENICO: No. Mr Berry, that is where you are wrong again. I can tell you that even Carmen Lawrence, the former Premier of Western Australia - remember her? - and even Joan Kirner - remember her? - who no longer is the Premier of - - -
Mr Kaine: They barely preceded this Government.
MR DE DOMENICO: They barely preceded this Government; that is correct, Mr Kaine. They started the train rolling on the selling off and corporatisation of TABs in Victoria and Western Australia. Your own colleagues did that. Much has been said about the word "privatisation".
Mr Berry: We are not going to sell it off.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry, let me also tell you that you happen to be the only Labor Government in this country that does not believe in corporatisation. Have a look at what your colleagues on the hill are doing about Qantas and Australian Airlines, as Mr Humphries mentioned. So that argument does not make sense either.
Mr Berry also suggested that all this has been out in the open since November - for six or eight months. Mr Stevenson, Mr Cornwell and others correctly said that this legislation was introduced on only 20 May. Mr Berry made various statements and various announcements, making everybody shudder, by the way, after he made them because no-one knew anything about it until they read it in the newspapers. He said, "Listen, obviously the racing industry had their go. They disagreed". Let me quote a document of more recent times than September. This is dated 11 June, which was last week, I believe, and it is addressed to you, Mr Berry. It is from the chairman of the ACT Racing Club, the president of the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club, and the president of the Canberra Harness Racing Club. Last week, on 11 June, they said:
Dear Mr Berry.
It has now been six months since your intention to decorporatise ACT TAB was announced.
As representatives of the racing industry in the Australian Capital Territory, we are well placed to both assess the general feelings of racegoers and the financial impact on those directly involved in racing, which flows from the proposed change. Our regular contact with industry participants and many on the fringes of racing (eg the media) in the past six months has given us the opportunity to assess your move in light of these discussions.
They consulted with the people who matter, the people who go to the races, the people who go to TABs and actually spend the dollar that afterwards ends up in your pocket as a director of the company. What do they say? This is worth quoting:
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