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there is a need in the community to corporatise ACTEW. A case has never been made out, not even by Ministers of more experience than Mr De Domenico. Mr Duby could not make out the case either. This led us to a position where we were unconvinced. There was no community cry - - -

Mr De Domenico: If Mr Duby could not convince you, nobody could, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: I will get to you in a minute. There was no community cry for any changes in ACTEW. The community had become satisfied with excellent services, a reasonable cost framework and, in the scheme of things, superb reliability. Those issues were amongst many which were considered by Labor when making the decision not to corporatise. The decision was made and we went no further with the issue. At that point the anger and the sting from the Liberals began. It continued right through the last term of the Assembly in the ACT. They were always lamenting the fact that it had not happened.

Mr Moore: How many questions were asked about it?

MR BERRY: Mr Moore interjects, “How many questions were asked about it?”. How many questions were asked about health, how many questions were asked about education, and how many questions were asked about a whole range of things? There were lots of questions. When it came to the health system, at the end of the term the health system was still treating about 50,000 people a year - more than it was treating at the beginning of the term - and giving excellent treatment. The education system was amongst the best in the country. It is not a matter of how many questions were asked by members in this place. I am talking about what the community feels in relation to the services which are provided.

Every day people get up and the first thing they rely upon is something which is provided by ACTEW. There are many things that are provided by ACTEW; but the first thing is a service which is provided by ACTEW, and it goes on from there. Right throughout the day we rely on the services which are provided by that organisation and all the people who work in it. I suspect that many of the community out there take those services for granted. The pipes come in under the lawn somewhere and take out products and bring in products, and the wires come in and electricity is articulated throughout the suburbs and into the households and everything is hunky-dory; but, if we are going to make a change such as is proposed for ACTEW, the community deserves to be fully informed.

I go back to some of the rhetoric which has been used by the Liberals. They have been saying that the debate has been going on for five years. That is a lie. It has not been going on for five years. It was killed. It was dead in the water. There was no interest in the community, no interest anywhere but amongst the few Liberals opposite, in particular Mr De Domenico, driven by that blind ideology. That is all it has been about, just blind relentless ideology - “You have to corporatise; it is the only way to go”. Not once was there a scream from the community that we needed to do this to improve in some way the services that were provided and the standing of ACTEW out there in the community.

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