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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2291 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Territory Government, and people have to understand that political circumstances that often surround these inquiries can be hazardous. I know; I have seen it happen. So, from the Labor Party's point of view, I repeat that we will not resist this inquiry. We will not be accused of having anything to hide.

MR MOORE (9.59): Mr Speaker, I listened very carefully to what Mr Osborne had to say. He asked me to listen to his argument and to make my decision accordingly, rather than running a heavy lobbying process with me. Mr Speaker, I would like to clarify a couple of issues. I agree with Mr Berry that when there was an examination of the VITAB issue the commission of inquiry found that there was no wrongdoing by Mr Berry. That is not to be confused with an issue that is to be handled by this parliament, and only by this parliament. This parliament considered that Mr Berry had misled it. That is the reason why he was forced - his description is accurate - to step down from his ministry. As far as I am concerned, he has paid the penalty. If he gets the opportunity to be a Minister again, that background would now have no bearing on any decision, as far as I am concerned, as to whether he could go into a ministry again or not.

Although Mr Berry likes to remember that some people wrote at the time that nine beats eight every time, there were others who wrote that the Assembly had set new and very high standards of accountability and high standards for what they expect of Ministers. I recall those commentaries as well as the one that Mr Berry prefers.

Mr Berry: You should apply the same standards to other Ministers, Michael.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR MOORE: I hear an interjection that I should apply the same standards to other Ministers. I do, and I will. Mr Speaker, it seems to me that one of the disadvantages of an inquiry like this is that it comes at a time when I think there is growing confidence in the ACTTAB. I hope that, through the process, that confidence will increase rather than decrease; but a process like this will always have some impact on the confidence that punters have in their own ACTTAB, and it is very easy for punters, particularly big punters, to move their business from one place to another.

Mr Speaker, having looked at this motion for an inquiry put forward by Mr Osborne and having watched from the crossbenches the previous inquiry into VITAB, all I can say is that I hope I am never in a position where somebody asks me to be a Racing Minister. It seems to me that the racing ministry would have to be the one ministry fraught with even more problems than the health ministry.

Mr Berry: I did not get the punch line, Michael. Run it again.

MR MOORE: All I said, Mr Berry, was that I would have thought that the worst possible thing to be, as a Minister, would be the Minister for Racing.

Mr Berry: I thought it was all right at first.

MR MOORE: Perhaps that is like racing itself. It is all right at first.

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