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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4812 ..

MS TUCKER (12.08): The Greens also will be supporting this Bill. We have been consistently concerned about the accountability of Territory-owned corporations. There have been statements made in this house on a couple of occasions that seem to imply that there is indeed quite a distance put between the operations of Territory-owned corporations and government. We have stressed on a number of occasions that government does have a responsibility for the operations of Territory-owned corporations. Therefore, their reporting mechanisms should be much closer to those reporting mechanisms of government agencies. It seems to me to be a very sensible move. The Greens will not be supporting the Government's amendments Nos 1 and 3, but we will be supporting amendment No. 2.

MR WHITECROSS (12.09), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank members for their support in relation to the two Bills. There are a couple of issues which were raised in the course of the debate and which I do want to address, just to put on the record the Labor Party's views in relation to these matters. I acknowledge the Government's support for the Territory Owned Corporations Bill, although they have circulated some amendments. Amendments Nos 1 and 3 are really consequent upon the Government's decision to oppose our Bill to amend the Annual Reports Act, the second Bill in the package. I will be opposing them because I believe we should be going with our proposed Annual Reports (Government Agencies) (Amendment) Bill. The Government's second amendment is a sensible amendment. It avoids contradictory provisions in the Territory Owned Corporations Act compared with the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act and therefore is a very sensible amendment. I thank the Government for bringing it forward to clarify what otherwise would have been an unfortunate contradiction.

Mr Speaker, in relation to the Government's more substantive criticisms of this approach, there are a couple of things I need to say. The Chief Minister, in her remarks, said that imposing the requirements of the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act on Territory-owned corporations would come at the cost of more onerous requirements under the Corporations Law. This was an argument they also advanced in the Government response to the Estimates Committee. However, Mr Speaker, the argument does not hold up, because section 16 of the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act makes it quite clear that the requirements of this Act are in addition to the requirements of other law. So, Territory-owned corporations will still have to comply with the Corporations Law reporting requirements.

Mrs Carnell: That is what I said, actually, in my speech.

MR WHITECROSS: So this does not come at the cost of more onerous requirements under the Corporations Law.

Mrs Carnell: No, I did not say that.

MR WHITECROSS: It is in addition.

Mrs Carnell: I just said that.

MR WHITECROSS: The Chief Minister interjects across the table to say that she agrees that that is actually the case.

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