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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 299 ..

Mr De Domenico - the answer to the Member's question is as follows:

(1) The instructions were prepared by the Board relying upon its own commercial and legal expertise, and forwarded in a letter from the Chief Executive, Mr Roger Smeed, dated 14 February 1995.

I would like to make the point at this stage that my Ministerial responsibility for ACTTAB dates from 15 March 1995, when the Carnell Ministry was announced. This Government was not in power in the period leading up to, and during the the Vitab inquiry and therefore I cannot accept Ministerial responsibility for the primary events covered in this question.

(2) The contents of the instructions and the advice, observations and supporting material comprise a detailed document which in its entirety, is "Commercial-in-Confidence".

(3) The Deed of Termination between ACTTAB and VITAB was signed on 10 August 1994.

On 3 August 1994, one week prior to the signing of the Deed, the ACTTAB Board sought independent legal advice from Sydney solicitors, Freehill Hollingdale and Page, to ensure that by entering into the Deed of Termination, the terms of which were provided to Freehill Hollingdale and Page, ACTTAB was not prejudiced from any claim against the solicitors who acted for ACTTAB in the establishment of the VITAB agreement.

Advice was received from Freehill Hollingdale and Page, also on 3 August 1994, that "if a compromise is ultimately entered into with VITAB in terms of the draft Deed, you will retain your rights, if any, against the former solicitors for breach of duty of care".

(4) The ACTTAB Board has advised that, in light of the Freehill Hollingdale and Page advice received on 3 August 1994, there was no impediment to later take action against ACTTAB's former solicitors. As a result, the Board took a commercial decision that their immediate priority was to concentrate on recovering the significant amount of business that had been lost over the course of the previous months and to rebuild confidence in the organisation by customers and ACTTAB staff.

The Board determined that the matter of any action against ACTTAB's former solicitors would be addressed once the business had commenced its recovery.

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