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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 3 Hansard (27 May) . . Page.. 637 ..

MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, I understand that the contract with J. Walter Thompson actually leaves ownership of that slogan with that company and that some considerable sum of money is being provided in the budget to cover the royalties associated with using the slogan. Chief Minister, can you tell us how much has actually been paid to J. Walter Thompson up until now for the use of this slogan, other than the original $100,000 cost of the contract, and by whom those payments have been made?

MS CARNELL: I can certainly give some of that information now, Mr Speaker. There is not an initial $100,000 contract. There is an initial contract, I think, for $50,000, and then a second contract for another $50,000 over two years. Mr Speaker, the $500,000 that is in the budget this year and hopefully some money that will be in the budget next year, which we certainly promised in the election campaign, is not going to J. Walter Thompson. It has gone to two local companies, who received the contracts as a result of an open tender process to actually put in place the Feel the Power campaign. I think MA&D Communication is one of them, and in a minute I will think of what the other one is. But there are two local companies that are involved in spending by far the largest percentage of that money in terms of the implementation.

J. Walter Thompson did the conceptual work with regard to Feel the Power, and they have an ongoing role. I have to say that I do not believe that the amount of money being paid to J. Walter Thompson is much, if any, more than the $50,000 in the first year and $50,000 in the second year. But, as I think I made clear in the Assembly right at the beginning of this whole campaign, they do retain ownership of the actual slogan and they do receive a royalty when, say, a private business uses Feel the Power on their particular brochure. A number of businesses have done that. There is a royalty paid to J. Walter Thompson; but certainly not from the Government. I will certainly make any of that information available. Some of it, of course, will not be available to the Government; but, if there is any that is available, I will let Mr Kaine know.

MR RUGENDYKE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell. Chief Minister, in a recent article in the Sydney press, the ACT Racing Club flagged its position on the review of ACTTAB. The article suggests that the ACT Racing Club is lobbying for the sale of ACTTAB to an independent group of private investors, which concerns me greatly in the wake of the VITAB disaster. The article also says that "the ACT Racing Club will call on the ACT Government to protect its interests and guarantee special funding arrangements in the event of an ACTTAB sell-off". Has the ACT Racing Club made any approaches to the Government seeking this guarantee, and what is the Government's position?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, we have now reached a stage where I think almost all the TABs in Australia either are on the market or have been sold. I understand that South Australia has indicated that it is now in the final stages; Queensland and the Northern Territory have announced their sales; as we know, the New South Wales Labor Government has floated or sold its TAB; and Victoria's is already sold. In all of

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