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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4835 ..

Mrs Littlewood: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Berry just mentioned that he would not take Mrs Carnell's word; that he would not believe what Mrs Carnell said. I find that offensive and I ask him to withdraw it.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

MRS CARNELL: For the information of members, pages 63 to 65 of Auditor-General's Report No. 8 of 1994, which I have just tabled, have just come back to haunt Mr Berry. Let me quote from the supposed deceitful advice that these documents contain. On page 64 it says:

On 10 August 1994 settlement was effected to an Agreement by which the long term contract between ACTTAB and VITAB Limited was terminated in consideration of the payment by the Board to VITAB of $3.3m. Concurrent with the termination, $3.3m was advanced to the Board by the ACT Government, with principal and interest re-payable over eight years.

The Auditor-General then outlined the costs of the contract termination, which at the time totalled just over $3.5m and included a $50,000 payment for the settlement of Mr Neck's contract being terminated. Under the heading "Findings" the Auditor-General says:

Based on the operating results of the prior two years it appears that ACTTAB will have difficulty in meeting its financial obligations as a result of its debt commitments to the Government.

In other words, Mr Speaker, for Mr Berry's benefit, because he does not have a clue about financial management, what the Auditor-General was saying was that ACTTAB was in all probability going to go broke. The Auditor-General was saying that, if the debt that those opposite loaded onto ACTTAB was allowed to continue, then ACTTAB would go broke. According to Mr Berry, this may have been deceitful advice, so I had better turn to the next page of the Auditor-General's findings to see what else he said. On pages 64 and 65 Mr Parkinson undertook an analysis of ACTTAB's ability to remain financially viable in light of the debt that Mr Berry and his Government hung around its neck. Let me quote his findings under the heading "Viability":

Based on current rates of interest the annual payments related to the VITAB loan will be approximately $600,000 per year. If profits remain at their current level it is unlikely that cash generated from operations will be sufficient to meet repayments of the loan and other financing arrangements may need to be made.

Mr Speaker, for Mr Berry's benefit again, the Auditor-General is saying that ACTTAB was unlikely to be able to service its debt and that it could well go under. Let me say it in two words for Mr Berry. He might understand two words. He might not understand financial management, but he probably understands "go broke". It means that we would not have had an ACTTAB. ACTTAB would have gone broke. Remember that this

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