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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2459 ..

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Am I to take it from your answer, Chief Minister, that we currently do not have an agreement with SOCOG and we do not have an agreement with the codes?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Ask your question, with no preamble.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, my question is: Has the Government, in fact, secured the private finance of $15m necessary to do the stadium redevelopment? Is that the reason why SOCOG and the other players are reluctant to sign up? Is that why you do not know whether the contracts have been let? And is that why you do not know whether work is going to begin soon?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, on all of the above, no. We have reached agreement with SOCOG. We have signed an agreement with one of the codes. The other two, we are very close to reaching agreement with. The work, as I understand, is due to start in the next couple of months.

MS TUCKER: My question is to Mr Kaine as Minister for Urban Services. When did you become aware of negotiations that ultimately led to the hedging contract between ACTEW and Yallourn Energy? When did you learn that Yallourn Energy had been chosen for that purpose? What steps did you take to caution ACTEW to give equal weight, in the consideration of such a major contract, to the principles of ecologically sustainable development, as is required under Schedule 4 of the Territory Owned Corporations Act? In asking this question, I remind members that, according to the former chief executive officer, Mike Sargent, this contract covers 85 per cent of the Territory's electricity purchases for three years, that is, 85 per cent of about $120m per year; that in ACTEW's media release of 27 June 1997, which I am happy to table, it was claimed that this was an historic deal, the single biggest contract since vesting contracts were introduced to facilitate deregulation of the Australian electricity market; and that part of the result would be "a significantly enhanced energy market for Yallourn".

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I think the first part of the question was: When was I informed? I do not recall the date, but it was certainly after the agreement had been signed. Of course, that is quite proper because we established ACTEW as a Territory-owned corporation so that it could make these decisions on a commercial basis and without interference by politicians. It was quite appropriate that the board look at this option to secure the future supply of electricity under the deregulated system and that they, the board, having entered into such agreement - I think it was the chief executive - inform me that that decision had been made. I do not have any difficulty with that. I think it is a good agreement. I think the Greens have misunderstood the nature of the agreement. I hope that you no longer do. It is an agreement, as I said, which secures the position of the Territory in terms of access to electrical energy from the pool over a three-year period. We will buy what we want from the pool, from time to time, at the best price available to us.

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