Page 3631 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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The process is rigged in favour of those sorts of enterprises - Burmah Fuels, particularly. The expressions of interest documents refer to site investigation reports. Those reports are absolutely essential for feasibility studies. The site report was not available to interested parties until today, Thursday, 13 October - almost two weeks after the original advertisement was placed in the Canberra Times. The closing date for applications has now been extended to 16 November. Presumably, the Government has acknowledged that it has stuffed up the process. This leaves barely four weeks from now until then for interested parties to undertake feasibility studies, negotiate with financial institutions and finalise supply arrangements with one of the major oil companies.
Madam Speaker, this process has been a farce and a disgrace, and the Government does not have the good grace to admit it. I hope, however, that the Assembly will have the good grace and decency to do something about this problem. There is no equitable way of reducing petrol prices without going down the path of reducing government taxation measures. The measures that the Government has adopted are clearly inequitable. They are clearly targeted at putting the boot into Canberra's small businesses. If you speak to one of them, you will find out what they think about that. The only fair way to deal with this problem, if we are really sincere about it, is to reduce petrol prices, and that means bringing down those taxes. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health): Madam Speaker, I seek leave, under standing order 46, to make a statement.
MADAM SPEAKER: Please proceed, Mr Connolly.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Humphries continues the track record of the Liberals. In his recent remarks, he said that the Government had rigged a tender process in favour of one applicant. It was a sly remark and would be slanderous, despite the High Court's recent ruling, if it were uttered outside this chamber. It was consistent with the sort of gutter slander that we heard during the committee process, when certain Liberals were extolling the views that this would show corruption in the Government; that Connolly would be got; that this was the end of Connolly; and that he would be proven to be corrupt over the Burmah deal. All of those allegations were found to be stuff and nonsense by the members of the committee who did adopt a fair and impartial approach to their duties, as, Mr Kaine, we would expect of you. No apology was forthcoming from those grubbier Liberals who had been rolling in the mud up to the release of the Assembly Committee's report. A minute or so ago, Mr Humphries said that the Government had rigged a tender document in order to produce a certain favourable outcome. He was virtually alleging criminal conduct. It is the sort of gutter statement that, unfortunately, some members of the Liberal Party are making a habit of; so, I was compelled to rise and refute it.
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