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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 3 Hansard (28 May) . . Page.. 758 ..

Mr Humphries: Censure yourselves.

MS CARNELL: That is absolutely true. If those opposite believe that an open tender process is the only way to go into a joint venture, they did not succeed terribly well when they were in government.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other issue that has been raised often is that the Government "entered into an exclusive contract with an individual developer despite no formal application having been lodged under the Land Act and advice that such arrangements would result in an adverse reaction from the land development industry". The dealings with Derek Whitcombe were based upon his ability to bring the authority of the Bolton family to the table. We respected the family's long association with the property, and we stand by that. Although there was no formal application to PALM, there were a number of meetings and discussions between Derek Whitcombe, PALM and OFM on the development proposal. These occurred during the period from June to December last year.

Mr Corbell has suggested that the Government "failed to explain what the Government's knowledge of the status of the leases at Hall was prior to the Cabinet meeting of 22 December". On 22 December the Government or senior officials were not aware that two-thirds of the Hillview property had been withdrawn from the Bolton family in early 1991 and 1992. That is a very simple answer, and we have said it before. This was realised only following further negotiations after the signing of the preliminary agreement. Cabinet consideration of the proposal was based on the premise that Derek Whitcombe was bringing the whole property to the venture. In the many discussions between PALM, OFM and Derek Whitcombe, it appears that no specific mention was made of the withdrawn leases. We are absolutely confident that Mr Whitcombe believed totally that he was bringing three leases to the table. This came to light only in mid-May of this year.

Mr Stanhope: What did you believe? What did you know?

MS CARNELL: I just told you categorically, and I had told you thousands of times previously.

Mr Humphries: You need to write it in blood, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: Yes. We did not know. Once this was recognised, it was obvious that the benefits to the Territory under the preliminary agreement no longer existed, at least to the level that we understood in the past.

Mr Corbell has also suggested that the Government "failed to explain why it assumed presumptive rights for a particular developer to negotiate exclusively with the Government when no such rights existed". We have clearly explained, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, why we decided to deal with Derek Whitcombe rather than going to open tender. The consideration and the wishes of the Bolton family were also respected.

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