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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2456 ..

MR BERRY: You know that means no. Mrs Carnell has urged Mr Hird not to rise to his feet. She is standing over him and Mr Hird has been dead silent on the issue of the Kippax library. The Kippax library is something that is valued by the - - -

Mr Hird: Who put it in?

MR BERRY: You did not have much to do with it. You could not have had.

Mr Hird: I put it in.

MR BERRY: Well, why are you letting it go? Why are you letting it go now if you think it is so important?

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR BERRY: You reckon you put it in. Why are you not defending it now? The rest of you - you have to be included in this little cadre - are going to let it go. There is no question about that.

Then we come to the other thing with the stench of rotten fish, the taxi plates. Have you been game to get into a taxi lately? I would not if I were you either, because probably about $80,000 has been taken off the value of every taxi here in the ACT because the auction company which bears your name did the big deal which cost so much money to those small business people. Mr De Domenico has been one and he has long prided himself on being a great representative of small business. How do you explain to all those small businesses the reduction in the value of their assets by about up to $17m? How do you explain to the ratepayers - - -

Mr Whitecross: It is good for small business.

Mr Connolly: Yes, they are smaller.

MR BERRY: Smaller than small business? Well, smaller than small businesses are okay. How do you explain to the ratepayers how you missed out on all the money because of the stench that surrounded the arrangements for that last auction? It was badly handled. It was badly managed.

Mr Hird: Are you talking about the stench which was to do with VITAB?

MR BERRY: Who was responsible for the auction? I will tell you who the community thinks was responsible for the auction. Harold Hird. They think it was him. They know that Mr De Domenico is tied up with this, because there is no trusting this Government on these issues.

Mr Speaker, the handling of Urban Services thus far really must strike fear into the hearts of Canberrans because already those small, small business people have lost something like $17m off their assets. They have lost about $80,000 each. I do not know any small, small business people who could afford to lose that. Mr De Domenico does not seem to

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