Page 598 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Hansard will show it, that he did not answer our questions. He went to great lengths, in fact, not to answer them. I suspect that it was not that he was deliberately going out of his way not to answer. I think, to be honest, that Mr Berry simply did not know the answers. Therefore, he found himself in the position where he had to evade the questions generally by the rather puerile defence of going on the attack against the Liberal Party and the Opposition's comments.
I am interested also to see, at page 12 of this document, that he has perpetuated this nonsense about VITAB providing a written undertaking that it will not knowingly seek the business of Australian resident customers. This relates to inducements. On the same page he went on to say:
They -
obviously, that is we, the Liberals -
have persistently said I have withheld information and they have insisted that there is some problem relating to inducements with the VITAB agreement and that I have misled the Assembly on this issue.
There is certainly some problem relating to the VITAB inducements. I would like to read into the record two statements from law companies. One is from O'Connor Harris, barristers and solicitors, in relation to a letter dated 22 November from VITAB to ACTTAB which dealt with VITAB betting activities, and it says:
The letter in question is a document with the following characteristics:
1. It was signed after the formal agreement.
2. It was not executed under the seal of VITAB Limited.
3. It is not supported by any form of consideration.
4. It does not purport to formally alter, or add to, the formal agreement.
5. It is expressed as a statement of intention only.
I think that is very significant. It continues:
6. Despite its "businesslike" tone, it is not written in a definitive or accurate manner and is heavily quantified.
7. It does not actually undertake anything.
8. It is very vague about VITAB's levels of control over, and knowledge of the operations of, its " ... overseas representatives who will be working on a commission basis ..." in Asia.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .