Page 1982 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 June 1994
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to receive since self-government. It reflects poorly on her Government, on her No. 1 candidate for Ginninderra, on his advisers, and on her administration as a whole. It should be very embarrassing for the Follett Government. The image of the Territory's TAB, unfortunately, has been set back 20 years. Other TABs have lost confidence in our agency, and a large slice of a $90m industry may be under threat.
What the Opposition will not accept is the blatant attempts by the Follett Government to shirk all responsibility for the VITAB affair. From the day an inquiry was announced by the Chief Minister, this Government has run for cover. They must have had a special on steak knives at the Canberra Theatre during the Pearce inquiry, Madam Speaker, because I saw hundreds of them sticking out of the backs of various people during the inquiry - of members of the ACTTAB board, of members of the department, of Ministers' staff. More finger pointing, as one journalist put it. If you had sat quietly during those hearings you would not have been able to hear what was being said for the sound of knives going into various backs. My staff and many journalists watched in fascination as senior bureaucrats from the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, ACTTAB, the ACTTAB board as well as the Minister all tried their hand at knife throwing.
Mr De Domenico: And dumping on each other.
MRS CARNELL: And dumping on each other, as Mr De Domenico said. The question we need to ask is not "Who is to blame for the failure of the VITAB deal?" but "Who was responsible?". The Government claims that it was ACTTAB and that ACTTAB alone must carry the can. Madam Speaker, the Opposition believes that the Follett Government is largely responsible for what Professor Pearce has found. It can be clearly shown that it was Mr Berry and his Cabinet colleagues who created the environment in which a stuff-up of this magnitude was allowed to flourish unchecked. The Government decorporatised the TAB on the pretext of having more responsibility for its operation. It decorporatised the TAB on the pretext of having more say in who was appointed to manage its affairs.
Now the Chief Minister wants us to believe that her Government had no responsibility for ACTTAB's operations, and even less to do with the actions of the board members. You and your ALP faction wanted more responsibility for ACTTAB, Ms Follett. I see that she has left the chamber. Today I think the Follett Government has to accept what she and her Minister and her Cabinet debated for in this house. Ms Follett set the rules under which the TAB operated. Ms Follett, or possibly Mr Berry, decided who would administer the agency; but I am sure that Ms Follett has control over all these things, and Mr Berry convinced the Independents that this would achieve maximum benefit for the people of Canberra. Ms Follett's Government promised that ACTTAB would be more accountable to it, more under its control and better managed via decorporatisation. You will remember that in this house the Liberal Party argued quite definitely against this approach. Now the TAB has become a convenient scapegoat. The agency and its board deserve strong criticism for their actions in the negotiation of the contract with VITAB, but they are not alone.
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