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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4748 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

It is not good enough for lawyers to throw their hands up in the air and say that they did the best they could at the time and that it is not their fault if something goes wrong. Most people with jobs are accountable for their actions, Mr Speaker. The greater the responsibility, the greater the fee. I think there should be a third string to that bow - the greater the accountability.

If the ACT Government is going to continue paying out thousands of dollars to get private legal advice, then there should be a standard performance agreement included in all contracts. That agreement should include penalty clauses for failing to give decent advice. You can sue a plumber or a builder for shoddy work. Let us apply the same standards to the lawyers.

Quite disturbingly, Mr Speaker, Mr Burbidge also found that warning bells about VITAB were sounded all along the way - bells which should have given the government of the day, and particularly the racing Minister, pause for thought. The loudest bell was sounded three days before the ACTTAB-VITAB link was announced. On 5 November 1993, the Minister was warned about "recent developments, particularly in relation to offshore activities" which "had the potential to cause long-term damage to Government revenue and to the viability of the Racing Industry". This warning came in the form of a letter from the New South Wales Minister for Sport, Recreation and Racing. That disturbs me greatly, Mr Speaker, because that person - Mr Berry - now has his hand up to lead this Territory. I hope, at the very least, that, if he does score the job, he pays a little more attention to his mail in the future. Or maybe it is just a continuation of his policy not to meet with anyone from the New South Wales Government.

I now turn briefly to the role of one Robert James Lee Hawke, a former Prime Minister of this nation. I note that Mr Burbidge finds that Mr Hawke was a promoter of VITAB, but adds that he was unaware of the deception involved in the venture. I think that, at the very least, Mr Hawke keeps interesting company. Beyond that, I believe that Mr Hawke's role in the venture was central, as it added enormous credibility. The fact that a former Prime Minister was involved must have added to the sense that this scam was above board. I have no doubt that this is the chief reason why his name was included among the promoters of VITAB in the first place.

Mr Speaker, I was pleased with the Government's response to this report - more particularly, that they intend to see whether the players in this scam can be pursued to the full extent of the law. When this inquiry was set up, there was a chorus of people opposed to it, based solely on the complaint that it would cost too much money. I trust that this report puts paid to that pathetic argument. If it does not, then this is my reply: You can hammer me all you like about the costs of this exercise; but what it has done has shone a light on the truth. There can be no more important task for a member of this Assembly than that they do everything in their power to get at the truth of how the Government operates and, more especially, how public
money is spent, and not be distracted from that task by people whose main purpose is to hide it.

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