Page 2012 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 June 1994
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Mr Connolly: "Mr Berry acted properly".
MR BERRY: That is right. "Mr Berry acted properly", says Professor Pearce. Madam Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to speak for about another four or five minutes.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: Thank you. What do we find in Professor Pearce's conclusions? He said:
(1) Mr Berry, his Departmental officers, ACTTAB officials and the various advisers to these parties acted in good faith throughout the negotiations leading to the entry by ACTTAB into the contract with VITAB.
(2) Mr Berry acted properly in his role as Minister in relation to the VITAB contract but was not well advised. He would not have been under any obligation to resign as Minister for events that flowed from that contract.
Mr De Domenico: Are you going to sack your staff?
MR BERRY: It would have been very difficult if you had had that information in front of you before you started to move against me, would it not? That is why you would not wait; and that is why you are squirming, and no wonder. Of course, Professor Pearce could not get to the heart of the matter - the role of the ACT Liberals and the Victorian Liberals in the cancellation of the VicTAB link. It is, however, important that all those who have had a view on the matter examine their consciences to see how their opinion was affected by the Liberals case - a case which has been proved to be flawed, a case filled with inaccuracies, a case which turns on rumour and innuendo. Go back and ask yourselves whether you would still have come up with the same view if you had had the opportunity to see Professor Pearce's conclusions first. I think, as politicians, you would not change because you would look sillier than you are now. The sad thing today is that Professor Pearce has cut away much of the mythology, and things are not as portrayed by the Liberals.
Unfortunately for ACTTAB and the punters, we cannot go back. The ultimate losers in all of this are the people of the ACT because of the way that you have blackened the process here. We have seen a successful, profitable public institution attacked and brought into disrepute by a dirty tricks campaign. There is no question about it. There is reason to believe that the Liberals in the ACT are responsible for the cancellation of the VicTAB link, and for that they ought to be ashamed of themselves. I think we have been conned, but I welcome the report. I know that it will cause members of this place to squirm. You should have waited. You would not have been so embarrassed if you had just waited.
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