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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 467 ..

MR STEFANIAK: I certainly will not accept the latter. That is a fairly technical point. It is noted that the assessment panel did not include an SES officer; it included a SOGB. If you look further into the report, if you go through the report, it states on a number of occasions that the panel was a good broad panel; that all relevant interests - and you would expect that - were actually on the panel; and, in fact, that that part of the process was done exceptionally well. The only problem with the panel seems to be that it was chaired by a SOGB rather than an SES officer.

Mrs Carnell: Shock, horror!

MR STEFANIAK: Shock, horror, indeed, Chief Minister.

Mr Whitecross: So, why is it in the manual?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stefaniak has the floor.

MR STEFANIAK: Really, you lot are quite amazing. Is the new Labor Party now trying to get stuck into us for contracting in rather than contracting out? Yes, according to the actual rules, if the strict rules were applied - in fact, section 7.6.2 - the chairman should have been an SES officer. That is something, no doubt, that everyone in this Government will take on board next time, to ensure that, whatever else we might seek tenders for, there is an SES officer on it. I thank the Auditor-General for pointing that out. I thank you for pointing it out, too.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Minister, this is surprising. Did the Minister at any stage in the procedure review the procedures undertaken to rid the ACT of its pools? Did you review any of the procedures, did you just let it happen or did sheer ideological will override commonsense? You just take your money. Do you not do anything - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! This is a supplementary question, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Do you not do anything in your office? Did you ever review it?

MR SPEAKER: Sit down. This is a supplementary question.

MR BERRY: Did you ever review it?

MR STEFANIAK: The composition of the panel, in terms of the personnel and what they actually represented, was certainly known to me and the Government. It was, as my colleagues and I found it, quite satisfactory. If we have erred, I am awfully sorry. If we have erred because we have had a SOGB chair the panel instead of an SES officer, I am awfully sorry. You are sorry about that, too, are you not, Chief Minister? This report actually says they did a very good job.

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