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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (2 December) . . Page.. 4267 ..

MRS LITTLEWOOD: My question is to the Chief Minister and it relates to the financial gurus across the way there. Recent media reports have quoted new Labor leader Wayne Berry, his deputy, Andrew Whitecross, and the Labor candidate Mr Ted Quinlan as all being highly critical of plans to require special dividends from ACTEW Corporation over the next two years to fund capital works that benefit the whole community. Can the Chief Minister inform members of the budget impact of cancelling these special dividends?

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, can we have clarification of that? Is Mrs Littlewood talking about "new Labor" or "a new Labor leader"?

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Moore.

MRS CARNELL: It would be nice to have some new Labor, I have to say. Mr Speaker, it is true that factored into the budget papers is a special dividend from ACTEW of $100m this financial year and a further $100m next financial year. There is no doubt about that. Members of this Assembly have been very critical of this. In fact, I believe Mr Moore has been critical as well, but those opposite have been very critical. Mr Speaker, it was well publicised when the budget was released in May and it attracted very strong criticism from all of those opposite, particularly from Mr Whitecross - but Mr Berry has been out there too.

Ms McRae: And Paul and Michael and Kerrie.

MRS CARNELL: And Michael, yes. The Labor Party, curiously, I must say, could not seem to understand the logic of providing a greater return to the whole Canberra community from a public asset worth more than $1 billion that is virtually debt-free, but I accept that there was lots of criticism. More recently, we have heard Mr Berry thundering on about this issue - "$100m from ACTEW"; "street lights next year"; "shock, horror!". Obviously, Mr Speaker, you would have to assume that Mr Berry would not be going ahead with this sort of approach if he were in government. Who can forget the shamelessly misleading stunt he conducted down at the Lakeside Arena when he included - - -

Mr Berry: It was a good one. I got you 422 times.

MR SPEAKER: I beg your pardon!

MRS CARNELL: He included the $100m from ACTEW in a list of money that he claimed was squandered. Mr Speaker, I think it really is important. Mr Berry, down there at the Lakeside Arena, claimed that $100m from ACTEW this year was squandered, and he was very critical about next year as well. The fact is that this is revenue, not spending, and, indeed, revenue that has not even been collected yet. That was something that obviously was lost on Mr Berry, but, when it comes to figures, we assume that will happen.

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