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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (22 November) . . Page.. 2283 ..

MRS CARNELL: What we have done - I made it very clear yesterday - is make sure that the people who were named in the Stein inquiry or, alternatively, whose positions were spoken about are no longer involved in those particular areas. As Mr Townsend is no longer head of DELP, as DELP no longer exists, there was no need to move him yesterday. Quite clearly, if DELP had still existed, and he was still the head of DELP, we would have moved him sideways as well.

MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Your proposals for new senior executives involve contracts, and those contracts measure performance. Will you be offering one such contract to Mr Townsend?

MRS CARNELL: When this Assembly passes the necessary legislation, Mr Moore, after comments that you have made recently on such things, all senior executive positions will be declared vacant. Positions will be advertised, or, in some circumstances, Ministers may choose to directly appoint people who they believe, after going through the appropriate merit selection process, should be appointed. Merit selection will be the basis of all appointments.

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr De Domenico in his capacity as Minister for Business, Employment and Tourism, and for self-promotion. I refer to the publication "How Canberra is Winning Business", this document which was circulated to members last week. It contains the statement that the feature is sponsored by the Business and Regional Development Bureau. The feature, as we can see, is printed on high-gloss paper - there is no recycling here - and contains photographs of three of the four Ministers. Somehow Mr Stefaniak missed out.

Mr Stefaniak: I am too ugly, Bill, I suppose; that is all.

MR WOOD: Well, you said it. I ask the Minister: How much public money was wasted on producing this self-promotion of some of the current Liberal Ministers?

MR DE DOMENICO: I thank Mr Wood for his question. I will come back with an exact dollars and cents answer. I do not know off the top of my head how much money it cost. In your question you ask, "How much money was wasted?". I can assure you, Mr Wood, that the Government does not believe that promoting Canberra is a waste of money, as you would know. This Government, prior to the last election, committed $5m to promote Canberra as a tourist, sporting and cultural destination, as well as a place to do business. Quite obviously, the Government has commenced work, because, as you would also be aware, since March 1995, since this Government took office, 6,700 new jobs have been created in the ACT. In comparison, when your Government was in office, Mr Wood, in the year before that there were only 700. There were 700 jobs under Labor; there were 6,700 jobs under the Liberal Party Government. Mr Wood, we will continue to wisely spend community money to promote Canberra.

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