Page 540 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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On 3 March Mr Berry said:
VITAB have given a clear undertaking that they will not be offering inducements in Australia.
Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party has obtained two independent legal opinions, which I seek leave to table, that show that VITAB's letter is legally unenforceable.
Leave granted.
MRS CARNELL: The fact is that Mr Berry has used this letter to mislead the Assembly, and he has knowingly done so. The Minister has consistently claimed that the VITAB deal was scrutinised by his law officers. It would be hard to believe, therefore, that he has not sought a legal opinion on this particular VITAB letter. The Minister deserves to lack the confidence of this Assembly for systematically misleading its members.
But it gets worse. When Mr Berry introduced a Bill to decorporatise ACTTAB in May last year, he said in his introduction speech in relation to the legislation:
It requires the responsible Minister to table in the Legislative Assembly any directions that are given to the board. That is accountability for you. This provision will ensure that all directions - every direction, every one of them - are open to scrutiny by the elected representatives of the people of the ACT ... This is about accountability.
He also said:
This change will strengthen ACTTAB's accountability to the Government and, through it, to the people of the ACT.
Section 7 of the Betting (Totalizator Administration) Act 1964 states that the functions of ACTTAB's board are, among other things:
... with the written approval of the Minister, to provide other services relating to betting.
Under this requirement, the Minister was obliged to give written approval for the ACTTAB board to sign the contract with VITAB. Subclause 9(3) of the Betting Act requires:
The Minister shall cause particulars of any direction to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly within 7 sitting days of its being given.
The Minister has never tabled this direction he gave to the ACTTAB board, so I will do it for him today. I seek leave to table a copy of the direction signed by Mr Berry on 22 October 1993.
Leave granted.
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