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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 455 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Despite that, there are still better ways of doing it. Because of factors in the ACT such as the fact that a lot of work had been done interstate, the Government decided, in the case of the swimming pools and, indeed, a number of other facilities, that it was best that they were, in fact, contracted out. It is early days yet, but initial indications seem to be that that certainly is the most sensible, cost-effective decision which we could have made. Results to date seem to vindicate that, although I do stress it is early days yet.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Whitecross?

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, how did the Government draw the conclusion that the pools could be far better handled, to quote you, "by contracting them out", when a formal feasibility study was never conducted to establish that that was the best option? Will you be adopting the same slapdash, intuitive approach to outsourcing the management of sporting grounds in the ACT?

MR STEFANIAK: That is hypothetical too, of course. Yes, I have had a quick look at the report and there are a number of things which I am very interested in, because in these reports there are always things which you can do better. In terms of a formal feasibility study, as I said, there was a fair bit of information available to the Government. The Government had a certain agenda in certain areas where it thought it could do things better. I reiterate that it was not just a case of saying, "Oh, this is a great idea", and getting nothing back in relation to that. A lot of work has been done; a lot of steps have been taken in other jurisdictions outside the ACT in relation to things such as pool management, which, quite clearly, indicate that is a very sensible way to go.

In the last Assembly my party might have been somewhat critical of, I think, Mr Berry, about the Tuggeranong indoor pool, because there were several private groups who were very keen to actually run that and who still maintain they could have run that a lot better than the Government could have. It was a decision of your previous Government to run that as a public utility. I accept that that is your ideological stance on these things. We on this side of the house, however, tend to think there are often better ways of doing things, and this was one of those occasions.

MRS LITTLEWOOD: My question is to the Attorney-General. Could the Attorney-General outline to the Assembly what procedure is required of a party that wishes to change its name, abbreviation or registration details in the ACT?

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mrs Littlewood for the question. It is a very good question. I can advise members that the secretary of a political party may apply to the Electoral Commissioner to change particulars registered in relation to a party. The application shall be in the prescribed form and accompanied by a copy of the constitution. The commissioner may require further information. The commissioner must then publish a notice of the application in the Gazette and a daily newspaper.

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