Page 494 - Week 02 - Thursday, 3 March 1994
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Madam Speaker, I am advised that my colleague Mr Connolly has written to the Legal Aid Commission - in fact last December, some months ago now - advising that as a government we are prepared, if it is necessary or if it is desirable, to strengthen the provisions of the legal aid Act dealing with secrecy, privacy and the professional indepedence of legal aid staff. We await advice from the Legal Aid Commission on whether they believe that those steps are necessary. To summarise, Madam Speaker, there will be no interference by government in the independence of either of those bodies. They will continue to exercise their professional independence as they have always done.
I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.
ACTTAB - Contract with VITAB Ltd
MR BERRY: Madam Speaker, I would like to provide some more information which is in relation to a question that Mr Kaine asked and which he seemed to ignore in asking his question. He read from a document which I tabled yesterday which was, in effect, advice on the ACTTAB-VITAB agreement. Mr Kaine referred to a particular part of that advice which read, "Any such liability would rest with ACTTAB". If he had read the whole paragraph he would have said this:
It is the opinion of the Government Solicitor's Office that the Agreement as now framed does not expose the ACT Government to any risk of financial liability. Any such liability would rest with ACTTAB which has negotiated suitable indemnity provisions in the Agreement.
It would have been nice if Mr Kaine had said that. In relation to that risk, if he had gone to the earlier page he would have said:
... ACTTAB has drafted its proposed Heads of Agreement to include both a significant security deposit from VITAB and a requirement for all VITAB Directors to also provide personal guarantees.
So, a mischievous piece of work was done by an envious group.
Mr Kaine: You had better start being prepared to dig into that bag of money.
Mr De Domenico: This is a shonky deal, Minister.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: We have ended up with an arrangement which will provide significant benefits to ACTTAB, about which there is a lot of envy. This mischievous lot opposite are only interested in muckraking.
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