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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2530 ..

Mr Hird: I take a point of order, sir. I did not hear the figure then.

MRS CARNELL: It is 120 new jobs, Mr Speaker.

Mr Hird: Thank you very much.

MR SPEAKER: Turn around and tell him in private, would you, Chief Minister.

MS TUCKER: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Kaine. Minister, yesterday in question time you said you had not been informed of the ACTEW-Yallourn electricity deal until after the contract had been signed and that you felt that was appropriate. You went on to say that you would consider using your powers under Part 3 of the Act to require ACTEW to show and justify the processes it used when deciding to award this contract to Yallourn if you could be convinced that it was necessary. Minister, the Greens and the Assembly have, firstly, put into Schedule 4 of the Territory Owned Corporations Act a requirement for ACTEW to give equal weight to the principles of ecologically sustainable development and to economic considerations; and, secondly, passed a motion calling on the Government to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets which explicitly called for those targets to include gases emitted on our behalf by electricity suppliers outside the Territory. Mr Kaine, why should I have to convince you, any more than the Assembly has already been at pains to do, to take an interest in this enormous electricity supply contract with a producer who, according to the relevant 1996 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Workbook - I seek leave to table this - is the most polluting generator, not one of the most polluting generators, in the country? Please do not tell me I do not understand how the national grid works, or how the national electricity market and the pool work. This is about a hedging contract. I am asking you for that.

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I think Ms Tucker read a great deal more into my words yesterday than I actually said. What I said was that I would need to be convinced before I would involve myself in the business decisions of ACTEW.

Ms Tucker: Yes, under Part 3 of the Act.

MR KAINE: I have heard nothing that would convince me that I should do that. Mr Speaker, there seems to be some belief on the part of the Greens that ACTEW is acting contrary to the public interest. I would assert that that simply is not true, and there is no evidence to suggest that it is.

Ms Tucker: Where is the argument?

MR KAINE: Well - - -

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