Page 594 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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At all times I have given careful regard to our local interests. As soon as there was clear evidence of the possibility of alternative pooling arrangements, I made the appropriate announcement. I made it. I am the one you are accusing of keeping secrets. I was the one that made the announcement. I could have waited until this sitting of the Assembly.
Mr De Domenico: You could have waited until next year, too.
MR BERRY: I could have, but I made the announcement as soon as it was appropriate to do so. Mr Humphries criticised that during his speech, but I did it. I was the one that announced it. Thank you for the applause; it is warranted. There has been all this nonsense about keeping secrets. This is about making sure that the management of a business is not interfered with by politicians who have no interest in the business itself. All they have is an interest in their own particular political position and a couple of cheap headlines.
I know in my own heart that I have acted with absolute care and responsibility in this matter to ensure that the best interests of the Territory were protected and enhanced. Today's motion, in my view, is another example of what can be aptly described as the political game, political point scoring by the Liberals. Every time you have asked the question I have answered it. You have not always liked the answer - I accept that - and I do not make a practice of handing you the noose and saying, "Here; hang me". But the fact of the matter is that every time you have made accusations they have all been rebutted.
I think you have failed to come up with any evidence to suggest that the VITAB agreement is not beneficial to the ACT. We have the money in the bank. You have set out to undermine confidence in the TAB, and I think those efforts go back to the time when it was decorporatised and made a statutory authority of the Territory. It is clear by your actions that it goes back that far. In an attempt to clear the air, the Chief Minister has set up an independent inquiry. Of course, the Liberals want to pre-empt the findings of that inquiry; they want to set up a kangaroo court. I love that one: Hang the accused before any of the evidence has been taken. Never mind waiting until the verdict is delivered.
The history of this issue is one of the Liberals throwing mud which, when the blowtorch is on the belly, they are not able to substantiate. Too often the Liberals have been caught out with misleading statements, the unsubstantiated claim, and they repeatedly get their facts wrong. There is scant regard for the truth. Their whole approach to the VITAB agreement has been just another example of that. They have spent many months making accusations. I think they have all been refuted. I have consistently answered their questions - not to their liking, but I am not going to apologise because they have not been pleased.
We also have to think about where the Liberals are coming from, and I say again that this is about politics, with inaccurate claims by the Liberals and not much proof from the Liberals. They have claimed that I misled this Assembly. It is they who have misled not only this Assembly but also the people of the ACT over and over again, and that has been the way they have chosen to operate. I did not mislead this house. At all times I think I have acted honestly, responsibly, with integrity, and in the best interests of both
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