Page 534 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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In fact, VicTAB has indicated to ACTTAB that they had a number of issues which still needed clarification. Surely ACTTAB would have obtained VicTAB's written approval before signing the contract with VITAB. Not to have done so would have shown the ACT Government to be, at best, naive and, at worst, incompetent.
Mr Berry knew full well that ACTTAB's dumping from the superpool was totally relevant to questions the Opposition asked him in February and March. It was information that members of this Assembly and Canberrans had every right to know, and the Minister deliberately concealed it. He concealed it for no other reason than that it would have cast doubt on the wisdom of ACTTAB's deal with VITAB - a deal for which he has taken personal responsibility. Mr Berry will continue to claim that he did not inform the Assembly because he was still trying to negotiate with VicTAB to change its mind or that the Victorian Government had to provide reasons for the termination of the superpool link. He is wrong. Under the superpool agreement, either VicTAB or ACTTAB only have to provide six months' notice to terminate their arrangement. No reasons have to be given. So the letter sent by VicTAB on 31 January was non-negotiable, and it was made clear to the ACT that this was the case within days of the termination notice being given. When he stood up in the Assembly in late February and early March, Mr Berry knew that there was no going back with Victoria. The VITAB deal had landed us in serious trouble, but he made sure that we were never told. Indeed, the information came to light only on 15 March, six weeks after VicTAB's notice came through.
This Minister has misled the Assembly on just about every aspect of the VITAB arrangement, right from who competed for the contract and who owns and operates VITAB, through to whether the ACT really knew whom it was dealing with. Mr Berry told the Assembly time and time again that other Australian TABs competed with ACTTAB for the VITAB deal. Mr Berry wanted us to think that ACTTAB won the contract with VITAB because it was better than other TABs, more aggressive and more businesslike.
Mr Humphries: More gullible.
MRS CARNELL: Yes, more gullible. Consider what he told the Assembly over the last five months. On 23 November last year, two weeks after announcing the VITAB deal, Mr Berry said:
Many other governments would love to have got their hands on this one.
On 8 December he said:
... and of course there is some envy amongst some of the TABs that they did not get it.
On 2 March this year Mr Berry said:
If we had not taken it up somebody else would have it.
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