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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 8 Hansard (26 October) . . Page.. 2073 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

The departmental liaison officer sought an assurance that the process had been adhered to and, I repeat, received that assurance. This conversation was not relayed to me or any member of my personal staff until I sought further information after question time the day that the Opposition raised it in question time. No member of my private staff was involved.

Mr Connolly: Hang on; you said that you got a PAQ on the 17th.

MR DE DOMENICO: Of October?

Mr Connolly: Yes.

MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, October.

Mr Connolly: That is before we raised it.

MR DE DOMENICO: Yes.

Mr Connolly: So you were aware of the potential conflict before we raised it.

MR DE DOMENICO: On 9 October, Mr Connolly, I was told that it was Harold Hird and Associates, and after the contract had been given and an assurance had been given that all the processes had been adhered to I said, "I bet you someone will leak, so let us make sure that I have a question ready for me to answer to make sure that all the proper processes have been adhered to". Like any good department, the department said, "Okay, we will get that PAQ". I admitted in this place, as Mr Moore will tell you, that it was only then that I knew in fact who got the contract and the fact that the $250 was going to be donated to a charity. Yes, Mr Connolly, the PAQ was prepared on 17 October.

Let us have a look at what is set out in the terms and conditions of the auction of the right to be granted a licence. Term 5 states that the Territory, through the relevant officer at the Department of Urban Services, reserves the right to reject any bid. It talks about the reserve price of $100,000. Ms Follett stood up and started spouting about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Government lost. The reserve price as per the conditions was $100,000. What was the average price? It was $162,000. That tells me that it was 62 per cent over and above the reserve price. It would have been nice to get $300,000 or half a million dollars each. It would have been fantastic. It would have been wonderful. Ms Follett started talking about markets. The reserve price being $100,000, the market decided yesterday that the average price was $162,000. So be it.

Take the same argument that Ms Follett wants to use. Just because house prices fell over the last two years of her Government, was it her fault? Maybe it was, because in order to get money she just released more blocks of land. Surely she cannot come into this place and blame this Government for the price someone is prepared to pay at a public auction for a taxi plate. What utter nonsense!

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