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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3947 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

In the last sitting period, the Chief Minister was forced to admit that the ACT taxpayer is now exposed to a potential debt of $24m. The ACT Government is covering the $7m that the private sector is to come up with to make this project viable. As we are already fully committed to the project, Labor believes that the ACT Government will be liable for the full $24m if the private sector fails to deliver. Of course, to Kate Carnell, any amount of millions of dollars is worth spending just to get Olympic soccer. It is a fine aim; but there is a limit to it. I do not think the taxpayer has been fully informed.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I turn to the light poles issue. The Chief Minister's latest revenue raising venture is to sell the ACT's light poles to ACTEW.

Mr Moore: It is not a loss of money. We have not lost any money on it so far.

MR BERRY: Now the Chief Minister claims that there has been no decision made. Michael Moore seems to be defending the Chief Minister, saying that it is such a good idea.

Mr Moore: That is not what I said at all.

MR BERRY: You said that we have not lost any money on it.

Mr Moore: It is another thing on which you are wrong, Wayne. That is not what I said at all.

MR BERRY: You said that they had not lost any money on it. The implication I drew from that was that you thought it was all right. I apologise. If you think it was a bad decision, say it. Now the Chief Minister claims that there has been no decision made on the streetlights sale; but, in the Estimates Committee this year, the then CEO of ACTEW, Dr Mike Sargent, admitted that over $100m had been allocated to buy the streetlights. His Minister, Trevor Kaine, joked that it was either the streetlights or the stormwater drains - either way, the Government was going to get its hands on the $100m. In fact, November's edition of the Electrical Supply magazine restates this intention. It states:

In Canberra, the ACT Government owns the city's 62,500 street lights but in this year's budget determined that the ACTEW Corporation would have to buy them for $100m or about $160 per light.

A couple of times here today you asked, "What would Labor do?". I can tell you this: If we were going to borrow money, we would tell the community that we were going to borrow it. We would not try to disguise it. That is what you are trying to do. It is a public relations stunt to try to cover up borrowings. You want ACTEW to buy the streetlights. "Is ACTEW putting up a good fight?", you might ask. Is that why the deal has not been made yet? We know that ACTEW will be forced to increase prices to cover the costs of the loan. You may consider the $100m as revenue; but it will cost every electricity consumer in this city, and that is a wrong priority. This is about wrong priorities. Who will own our light poles once the Liberals sell ACTEW?

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