Page 626 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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It did not matter which side they were coming from or when it was, because we certainly understood that it was a very important matter. I do not think that our minds were made up before, even if they are now. This is a very detailed thing that one needs to weigh. The adjournment helped. At least it gave us some time. That is a reasonable thing.
Ms Szuty, when she talked about reading the questions and the answers of Mr Berry during question time earlier this year, mentioned that it was hard to follow some of the questions because of interjections. I had had that same thought. It does tend to take someone off their train of thought when you interject. If you just let someone go, that is what they said. Later you can say, "He gave the whole lot". With all the interjections, I found it was all over the place. Then you wonder whether the question was answered at the end, and whose responsibility was that? Was it the Minister's, because he had no intention of answering, or the interjector's, because it just went all over the place? It is a problem.
I come now to a major situation with the Victorian TAB. That is a key and it relates to just about every question we have. There is no question that Mr Berry knew that VicTAB had given notice to break the deal. There is also no question that he did not tell the Assembly when questions were asked, or even regardless of there being questions - - -
Mr Berry: There was never a question asked about that, though. Put that on the record, too.
MR STEVENSON: I am getting to this. Mr Berry mentioned that there was never a question asked about that. There are a couple of points. First, should he have told the Assembly, regardless of whether or not questions were asked? Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, when the matter of the entire situation and meetings with all TABs was raised, one would suggest that at that time he had a responsibility to inform the Assembly as to a situation that placed the deal in jeopardy, to say the least.
Mr Berry: You are talking about 6 December?
MR STEVENSON: Yes, early on in the piece; when we came back into the Assembly. Ms Szuty mentioned that the cessation of the deal was confirmed on 14 February. In other words, they said, "No, we are not going to have a bar of it". I can understand someone in a commercial situation wanting to go and negotiate. That is a logical and sensible thing to do. You never shut that door until the last minute and you have made some other deal that precludes you from doing it. So I can understand that. Was there any other opportunity for Mr Berry to let us know without endangering what he may have felt was commercial activity? Indeed, there was. There was nothing that would have prevented Mr Berry from coming to members in this house and saying, "Look, if I answer questions in this house directly about this issue there are some points that might seriously jeopardise the commercial activity of the whole deal". We could look at that and make a decision on that.
Debate interrupted.
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