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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (21 May) . . Page.. 484 ..

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Berry?

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister did not seem to be able to answer the question. The question was about the blocks of land the Government understood the Bolton family to hold leases for. If you do not have the information in front of you, you can give it to us by the close of business today in relation to the Boltons. My supplementary question is: Can the Chief Minister say whether the Government received any advice prior to 15 May 1998 - and I would like you to keep that date in focus - regarding the status of the three blocks Mr Whitcombe claimed to have an exclusive right to negotiate over? What was the nature of that advice?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the first time that I was given - - -

Mr Berry: You can take it on notice if you cannot answer it.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I answered that question exactly. In fact, I even gave the actual block numbers. You said, "Which blocks?" and I told you which blocks.

Mr Berry: No; what blocks of land the Government understood the Bolton family to hold.

MS CARNELL: Which was the Hillview property, Mr Speaker, which is what we understood the Bolton family to hold. Mr Speaker, the first time that I became aware or, for that matter, the people who were doing the negotiations - that is the project group - became aware that the Boltons did not hold two of those blocks - that is, 495 and 629 - was last Friday, which I think was the 15th. Anyway, last Friday the members of that project management team then informed me of that.

Mr Berry: I did not ask that question. Again, she has answered a question I did not ask.

MR HIRD: We could ask Mr Berry which hand the marble is in; he might work it out from that. My question is to the Chief Minister. I refer to recent economic indicators which show that the ACT is slowly but surely - listen to this, Mr Berry - recovering from the downturn caused by previous Federal governments under Mr Keating and the current Federal Government under Mr Howard through employment and spending cutbacks in the ACT. Can the Chief Minister advise the parliament how successful this Government's - that is, her Government's - job strategies have been, in the light of the latest official unemployment figures?

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