Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 252 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

The Government would be prepared to take this motion seriously if there had been any sign of good faith from Ms Rees by way of public retraction of some of the more outrageous allegations she made.

Mr Moore: The way you do it. You send an apology and then blast her here.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Moore makes a comment about the apology, which I am happy to debate. What did happen to that apology? The moment I sent it, it ended up on the front page of the Canberra Times. I did not put it there.

Mr Berry: Why should it not be on the front page of the Canberra Times?

MRS CARNELL: No problems. I am just making a point about who is showing any good faith. We would take this motion seriously if Ms Rees publicly admitted that she had absolutely no proof of any of the supposed corruption, insider trading, deceit or dishonesty that she alleges is practised by public servants. I have seen no evidence that Ms Rees has any such intention. Indeed, on radio yesterday, Ms Rees denied making personal attacks upon public servants, when those attacks are on the public record.

There is another reason why this Assembly should not support the reinstatement of Ms Rees to the Kingston Foreshore Development Authority board. It relates to a possible conflict of interest which has come to the Government's attention only since Ms Rees was removed from the board in December. The Government has been informed that Ms Rees is employed by the AMP - one of Australia's biggest property investors, a significant property owner in Canberra, and a company that I understand has been a leaseholder in Kingston. According to its annual report, the AMP Society is also a major shareholder in some of Australia's biggest property developers, including Lend Lease, Leightons and Westfield, and in some of the nation's largest property trusts. At no stage did Ms Rees ever disclose her employment with the AMP while she was a member of the Interim Kingston Foreshore Development Authority.

The Kingston foreshore redevelopment will be one of Canberra's biggest redevelopment projects and will attract interest from major property developers. Ms Rees did disclose a potential conflict of interest relating to her employment by the Australian Science Festival, which received sponsorship from the Kingston Foreshore Development Authority; but on the potentially more serious and more difficult issue of her employment by the AMP there was no such disclosure. I invite Ms Rees to state whether or not she is employed by the AMP Society and why she did not disclose this information. I find it difficult to believe that someone who has campaigned so vigorously against perceived conflict of interest within the Public Service could have overlooked such a conflict of interest in her own affairs.

I would like to turn now to the other issue in the matter of public importance, the issue of community consultation. This Government is committed to community consultation. As this is a matter of public importance, I realise that I will not get an extension, which does somewhat curtail a capacity to handle two quite big issues. Probably a good way to start is to table 125 pages of fact right now. This is the consultation audit for the last 12 months of this Government - 125 pages of actual records of consultative sessions

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .