Page 456 - Week 02 - Thursday, 3 March 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Stevenson: I will seek leave.
Mr Kaine: Seek leave and we will grant it.
Mr Moore: I believe that Mr Kaine had not spoken to it previously.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Moore, that is what I have ruled. If you wish to speak, you know the procedure.
Mr Moore: Madam Speaker, I seek leave. In fact, Mr Stevenson stood first. Does he want to seek leave first?
MR STEVENSON: I seek leave to speak to this motion.
Leave granted.
MR STEVENSON: Perhaps I can give Mr Kaine and other members a clear and simple reason why the matter should not proceed immediately. We agree that the independent economic analysis was important. Mr Kaine himself mentioned that there was cause for the independent analysis to be done, and I think we would all agree with that. So the key is not whether it has been done; the problem is that it has only just been tabled. There has not been sufficient time, and no-one could claim that there has been, for a reasonable analysis of that independent economic analysis by Access Economics to be done. You simply cannot claim that. It has only just been tabled.
Mr Wood: The committee wanted it that way.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Wood says that the committee wanted it that way, but I suggest that the people in the community do not want it that way, which is why we are now suggesting that there should be some more time - not that the decision should be turned over, but simply that there should be more time for consultation, for an evaluation of the report. The report is important. Give the community and other interested people the time to look at it. Why would you not wish to do that?
Mr Kaine mentioned Professor Neutze's report and made a couple of mild criticisms of it, but we must understand that he also did not have much time to comment on the Access Economics report. Mr Kaine mentioned that there was a lot of time when Professor Neutze could have done an analysis of the matter, but when was he asked to do an analysis on the report? There was no time for that; there have not been weeks and months for that. Perhaps I should quote exactly what Professor Neutze has said. Mr Kaine said that Professor Neutze indicated that the basic analysis method used by Access Economics was sound and then went on to say that Professor Neutze could not judge certain things. Let me read the exact quote from the report of Professor Neutze:
It is almost impossible for anyone outside the Government to judge whether the results of this Assessment are or are not correct because the basic engineering and other estimates on which they have been based have not been made publicly available by the ACT Government.
If that is not correct, if all that data has been made available, fair enough; but that was the exact comment made.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .