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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1279 ..

Mr Berry: But you agreed to it being signed.

MRS CARNELL: Yes, I do agree with it. Right from the beginning, right from the election campaign last year, I believed very strongly that a new private hospital was an appropriate approach for the ACT. We have had this on the table in the public arena since the last election. We have had it in the public arena, after calling for tenders, since last August. There were lots of sitting days in the meantime.

Mr Speaker, what we saw from Mr Berry last week was a straight political stunt. We had already made commitments to HCOA. When I announced them as the successful tenderer in January we obviously had an agreement in place at that stage, Mr Speaker, as you do when you announce successful tenderers. After people spent a lot of money putting a tender together, as they did, we announced the successful tenderer. We then went into the planning stages and lots of discussions occurred, as you would expect. What did we hear from Mr Berry? Nothing, Mr Speaker - until last week. I have to tell you, Mr Speaker, that there was no way on this planet that I was going to stop the process at that stage. That is what those opposite were asking for - that we stop a process that had been under way for months and months, with deathly silence from those opposite.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question?

MR CORBELL: Chief Minister, why is not your hasty handling of this matter a blatant contempt - - -

Mrs Carnell: Hasty?

Mr Humphries: Hasty? Over a year!

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, I will start again because you did not hear the question, I know. Why is not your hasty handling of this matter a blatant contempt of this Assembly?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I think this probably shows the difference between this side of the house and the other side. We put something out for tender last August. We announced it in an election that was two-and-a-bit years ago. I must admit I think the tender process took too long. I do not like tender processes that take six months. I have no idea why our tender process takes as long as it does. I think the process was too slow, Mr Speaker. To go to tender in August and not to be able to announce the successful tenderer until January, to me, is too long; but those opposite think this was a speedy process. Shock, horror; there was a six-month gap between when we went to tender and when we announced the tender.

In January, when I announced the successful tenderer, I said it would take us three months to sign a final contract. I said that publicly, Mr Speaker. I said at the announcement about HCOA, "We will now work together to sign a final contract within three months". That would have been the end of March or the beginning of April.

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