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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 3 Hansard (28 May) . . Page.. 762 ..

Mr Humphries: Are you saying he is lying? Are you saying he is telling lies?

MR STANHOPE: I am not suggesting that anybody is lying, Mr Humphries - not yet.

Mr Humphries: What are you saying about Mr Whitcombe?

MR STANHOPE: What I am saying, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is that what we had was a question about the basis on which Mr Whitcombe could bring to the table the Boltons' authority to deal over lease 630. That is the crux of the matter. That is the question which the Government will not answer. That is the question I asked the Chief Minister earlier this week. That is the question I asked the Chief Minister again today, that is, to corroborate Mr Lilley's evidence to the Urban Services Committee and to tell us how many of the 150 blocks are on lease 630. That is the bottom line, is it not?

Mr Humphries: What is the answer, Mr Stanhope?

MR STANHOPE: We are waiting with bated breath for the answer to that question.

Mr Humphries: So am I.

MR STANHOPE: Good. Your breath will not be as bated as mine when the information arrives, Mr Humphries. If, as we believe, the majority of those blocks are on lease 630, the Government's case is all the more absurd, all the more silly. It actually makes them look - - -

Mr Berry: Incompetent.

MR STANHOPE: "Incompetent" is the wrong word. It makes them look disingenuous. It makes them look as though they are grasping desperately for straws to hide the fact that they have entered into an arrangement for reasons which, quite honestly, I still cannot grasp. I guess that is the thing that frustrates me so much about this debate. I simply cannot understand why they have done what they have done. The great problem is that there is no transparency, there has been no attempt at being accountable to the people of the Territory for the decision they have made.

The question of accountability is really important, because we must go back to the contract. The contract was an important document. Mr Whitcombe, a leading businessman in this town, entered into a contract with this Government in good faith. He signed a document. He is a businessman who was going about his business, doing what he does best, seeking to develop land, seeking to do the things that he does in his business; and he, quite rightly, entered into a contract which says that he will do certain things and the Territory will do certain things.

Mr Whitcombe, for his part, was to undertake certain works. He was to arrange the commissioning of a preliminary assessment and a range of other things. For doing so, the Territory was to reimburse him fully. We were told today that he actually racked up $140,000 in costs in doing the things that the contract said that he could do. The only assumption we can make, in terms of the answer the Chief Minister gave, is that Mr Whitcombe has indeed racked up costs to the tune of $140,000.

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