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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3210 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

determination requires that they be paid. The only question is: How is it funded? I repeat: Mr Berry may well find himself having somehow to produce an extra $4m next year and hoist with his own petard. It will be interesting to see what he does if that eventuates.

Mr Speaker, the Government will, of course, assist where any organisation has exhausted all available possibilities for increased efficiency and for cost reduction. Then we will look and see how we can help. We simply will not say, "We have done it already". We simply will not say that to a service organisation, which, incidentally, is funded by government, because we value the work that they do. That is why they are funded in the first place. We are not going to pull the rug out from under them, but we will expect a reasonable performance on their part before we increase their funding. I think it is simply untenable to take a position requiring government to simply pick up the tab, without limit, for increased costs to organisations that are essentially private organisations. That is what Mr Berry's motion, on the face of it, seeks to do. I do not think it is an expectation that anybody can reasonably have of government - whether it be this one or whether it be Mr Berry's at some time in the future.

Debate interrupted.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

MR BERRY: My question to the Chief Minister is in relation to the Feel the Power of Canberra campaign. Chief Minister, on what grounds did the Government decide that J. Walter Thompson was the best company to design the Feel the Power of Canberra campaign, without going to an open tender process for a valuable $100,000 contract?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I am fairly confident that I answered that question yesterday, but I am happy to answer it again today. The Government recognises the need for a coordinated marketing and promotion campaign to be undertaken in order for the ACT to be able to compete with other States for major business, tourism and events opportunities. I would be very surprised if everybody in this house did not agree with that. In this context, and given the experience of J. Walter Thompson in branding such cities as Atlanta in the 1996 Olympics, that firm was asked to develop the creative work that would underpin a major campaign.

Members will recall that the Government made $500,000 available in this year's budget for such a marketing and promotion campaign. Underneath that overarching work that J. Walter Thompson did, a local firm, City Graphics, has been chosen by tender to assist the Government in implementing the campaign. As I have said in the past, MA@D Communications are doing similar work for the Tourism and Events Corporation. So, Mr Speaker, the situation is that last financial year J. Walter Thompson was paid $50,000 for its conceptual work. When that conceptual work was accepted by

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