Page 612 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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... members should carefully consider what I have said because those comments relate specifically to the benefits of the ACTTAB/VITAB agreement, which is separate from ACTTAB's arrangement with VicTAB.
And he is right. There is absolutely no question that the ACTTAB-VITAB contract has everything to do with ACTTAB's link with the VicTAB superpool - and if not the VicTAB superpool, then some other superpool within Australia which might be available to the ACT.
I understand that the Minister may have felt that it would have been irresponsible, premature and perhaps damaging for him to have made an earlier announcement on VicTAB's decision to terminate its link with ACTTAB. Maybe he did not feel that he could come into this Assembly and say that in open session with all members, but Mr Moore and I had no approach from the Minister, no offer of a briefing to explain what was happening. There was no reason, presumably, for us to be concerned at all. There have been other occasions in this Assembly when, if it is felt that members should be aware of a particular situation, an offer is made to keep us informed about what is going on without having a debate on the floor of the Assembly.
I also find it difficult that the Minister could not come to the Assembly and brief us a little more fully, perhaps because he was afraid of the Opposition's reaction. I suppose that is all very well if we regard this place as a purely political place, but there are other members of this chamber to consider, and they include members on the cross benches - Mr Stevenson, Mr Moore and I - who had not been asking any questions about the VITAB-ACTTAB contract but who would have been concerned about the events happening behind the scenes.
The Minister has provided us with some detail as to what has happened with VicTAB, and it has been a fairly sorry tale as far as the ACT is concerned. We were informed in late January that we would be cut out of the superpool but that no reasons would be given for the decision VicTAB had made. Of course, there is no requirement for them to give us any reasons for their decision, but I understand that it would have been difficult for the Minister and for ACTTAB to understand why that had occurred. However, we know also from the Minister's statements that VicTAB confirmed its intention to cut us out of the superpool on 14 February 1994. It was two weeks before the Assembly sat. We went through two weeks of fairly rigorous questions from the Opposition, and the first that members of this Assembly and members of the community knew about the ACTTAB-VicTAB severance was in the middle of March. A whole month had elapsed. That is in stark contrast with the amount of time over which ACTTAB negotiated the VITAB contract in the very early stages. I understand that the Minister has had discussions with the Minister for Racing in Victoria, and I believe that that is still unresolved. But the question still remains as to why the Minister could not bring himself to inform members of this Assembly exactly what was going on.
Madam Speaker, I am conscious that I have taken up a lot of the Assembly's time in the remarks I have made. I have also taken fairly detailed notes on all of the speeches in this debate so far, and I should like to quickly summarise some of the points that have been made. I think I have covered Mrs Carnell's opening address fairly fully. While I believe
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