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Corporatisation and Privatisation

MR SPEAKER: I call Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your eagle eye.

Mr Humphries: Eagle or evil?

MR BERRY: Eagle eye. You pick movement up as soon as it occurs. My question is directed to Mrs Carnell in her capacity as Chief Minister. Besides ACTEW and Namadgi National Park, what other Canberra enterprises/services are you planning to privatise, corporatise or generally give away?

MRS CARNELL: Unfortunately, I do not know that there is a standing order dealing with stupid questions; but the reality is: Privatise, none; give away, none. With Namadgi National Park, as Mr Berry knows perfectly well, there was no view that we were going to give it away, privatise it or corporatise it. We are looking at ways to manage everything in the ACT better. We have been quite up front about the fact that we believe that ACTTAB should be corporatised in line with the TAB facilities in New South Wales. Many people here may not realise that last week in the New South Wales Parliament their Treasurer, Michael Egan, made an in-depth economic statement.

Mr De Domenico: He is a Labor bloke, is he not?

MRS CARNELL: He is a Labor Treasurer. It is very interesting to note that he announced that they were going to corporatise 15 government entities. As well as that, they are moving to make government services more competitive. They are looking at the cost of running government. You would be surprised. In fact, they are doing exactly what every other government all over Australia is doing and the sorts of things that we need to do here to stay competitive. Privatisation, none; giving away, none; corporatisation we will look at. If the Assembly supports it, we will certainly go ahead with the corporatisation of ACTTAB. We are looking at ways to better run ACTION buses, as everybody here is very well aware; and we will look to whatever services are provided in the ACT to ensure that we run them in the best interests of the community.

MR BERRY: I would like to ask a supplementary question. I hope that it gathers as much undivided attention as the last question, which was at first branded stupid. What I would like to find out from the Chief Minister is whether, in keeping with all those big glittering promises that were provided to the community before the last election about consultation, the Chief Minister would be prepared to provide a list of all of the areas where there is any contemplation of these little give-aways or corporatisation or privatisation plans. After all, Mr Speaker, as you and many other people would appreciate, the essence of consultation is providing the information at the contemplative stage, not once the race is over. Could we have a list of all of the areas where Mrs Carnell is contemplating changes of the nature which I have mentioned?

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