Page 2617 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 1994
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local level on the merits of a national criminal code and the desirability of codifying the general principles of criminal responsibility, without committing the Government to that course. I table the document entitled "Criminal Code Bill 1994" and a copy of this statement. I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
VITAB CONTRACT
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Madam Speaker has received a letter from Mrs Carnell proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The damage caused to the ACT by the Follett Government's decision to enter into the VITAB contract.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (3.35): The origins of the VITAB affair can be traced back to a telephone call made by a Melbourne businessman to Canberra barely 14 months ago. When Dan Kolomanski spoke to Phillip Neck it led the ACT down from what appeared to be "money for jam for the Territory" into what became a licence to print money for a group of smart businessmen. We may never know the true cost of that telephone call, although we will continue to ask. In just over a year a business deal signed under a veil of secrecy between the Follett Labor Government and the world's only privately owned TAB has caused the Territory untold political and economic damage that will be felt for many years to come. The extent of this damage is hard to assess. The Chief Minister seems to have no idea.
Mr De Domenico: She is not even here.
MRS CARNELL: No. I understand why. In dollar terms the ratepayers of this city are probably out of pocket to the tune of at least $4m; but who knows? There is the $3.3m out of court settlement; undisclosed legal costs that will run into hundreds of thousands of dollars; a lost link with the Northern Territory TAB worth $350,000 annually; and a new link with the Victorian TAB that will probably cost at least an extra $60,000 a year in increased processing charges.
But the ramifications of the VITAB deal run much deeper than that. The reputation of our TAB has been set back at least 10 years. The image of our TAB now is not of a computerised, commercially astute agency but of a maverick organisation with questionable business acumen. Let us hope that the new board can make a better fist of it than the old one. It would not be hard. Canberra's TAB agencies came close to financial collapse, and the jobs of hundreds of people were placed under grave threat. Our racing industry was rocked by a deal that it did not even know about until it was too late. It was not even asked.
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