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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4797 ..

MR BERRY: The dialogue is handy. A member appointed to the board by the Alliance Government was subsequently appointed as chair. Keep the record straight when you are talking about these issues. That sort of chicanery does not do anything for your standing out in the community. That board has met its fate. It has been criticised in the Burbidge inquiry. I suppose I could apologise for reappointing the appointees of the Alliance Government, but that would be silly. The facts are that there has been a fair bit of chicanery about some of these issues, and the community deserves to be told the truth at all times, not only in this house, especially on serious issues.

This has been a long and drawn-out saga of events with a sprinkling of politics - or should I say a smattering of politics, perhaps a couple of layers of batter of politics, or a battering? The ACT was caught in a pincer movement between the then Liberal New South Wales Government-controlled TAB and the Liberal-controlled Victorian TAB before it was privatised. The longer I stay in this business, the better I understand when there is a little bit of politics involved, and there was a strong stench of it then. Let us not ever kid ourselves about that. It was an unfortunate period. It was particularly unfortunate for me as a Minister, as a newcomer to this business, and I suspect that I paid the price. I will not go into discussion about former decisions of this Assembly, because I might then be accused of saying something nasty about the decision-makers which, Mr Speaker, you might be called upon to check me on. I am sure that you would agree with me, but you might have to check me in relation to what I say about some of the earlier players and their decisions.

Burbidge expanded on the work done by the Pearce inquiry. The Pearce inquiry was called for by Mrs Carnell at any cost. The Pearce inquiry cleared me. The Burbidge inquiry never mentioned me adversely. No matter how much Mrs Carnell tries, all of the adverse criticism by the inquiry has been made of those who deceived and misled and of more recent people who were involved in inducements in the ACT. I call on you to sack Mr Smeed. Instruct the board to sack him. That is what he deserves. He has been reported on adversely in this report and he has been involved in activities which have put at risk the link with the TAB pools in Victoria, the same link which, when severed, cost the ACT $3.3m in a settlement. If you do not think that is serious enough, then I do not think you are fit to be Chief Minister.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (11.11): Mr Speaker, I think I probably need leave to speak.

Mr Berry: You will not get it. You can bring it on tomorrow and we will have the debate then.

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment. The Assembly will decide that. Are you seeking leave to speak, Chief Minister?

MRS CARNELL: Yes.

Leave granted.

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