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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 988 ..

MR SPEAKER: I shall be happy to look at that for you, Ms McRae. In the meantime, I would remind members that Mr Walker, the person in question, is not in a position to defend himself here.

Ms McRae: That is why we have privileges.

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment. I do not believe, in fairness to the man, that you should make that comment or use that description, Mr Whitecross; and I am inviting you to withdraw it.

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you for your invitation, Mr Speaker. My question to the Chief Minister was: Is it not a fact that you and others, such as your Liberal colleague Margaret Reid, your self-appointed vice-president, John Walker, and Bob Winnel, are members of the ministerial forum advising the Federal Government on policies affecting Canberra? Chief Minister, is it not the case that you and your mates are providing the ideas which are being implemented by the Federal Government and which are decimating the ACT economy?

MRS CARNELL: Is it not the case? No, it is not the case. The approaches that the ministerial forum, which is a group of Canberrans who care about the city and who are willing to put aside their time - and they are predominantly business leaders in the ACT, but others as well - are putting forward to the Federal Government include such things as the importance of the National Museum being part of the budget next Tuesday; the importance of an international airport for the ACT and possibilities on how that might be done within the environmental constraints that exist in Canberra and, for that matter, in other places. We have been pushing hard for the high speed rail link and have managed to end up with a bit of a turnaround, I have to say, in Federal government policy with regard to the high speed rail link. You would notice in recent days the Prime Minister has been very supportive of that approach. That was not necessarily the case under the previous Labor Government, I have to say. A lot of work has been done in that area.

We have also spent a lot of time speaking to them about outsourcing and how they should adopt the InTACT approach to allow strategic partnerships between local firms and high-tech firms from outside the ACT.

Mr Corbell: Yes; that has made a big difference, has it not? Very successful.

MRS CARNELL: That is interesting. The comment from the other side was that the InTACT proposal was "very successful". They are actually right. It is very successful and it is a great way to allow small local companies to be involved in significant outsourcing contracts. We have also had significant discussions with the Federal Government with regard to asset sales. We have made it very clear to the Federal Government that we do not believe that there should be any fire sale in the ACT; that they have to be very careful, as they sell off buildings in Canberra, to ensure it does not affect the market too substantially; and that selling off buildings without income streams is unacceptable.

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