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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 1204 ..

Ms Carnell: That is right, three documents.

MR STANHOPE: Okay, let me display them. I will table the documents. Guess what they are headed, Mr Smyth, Minister for Planning? What are the second and the third documents headed? You do not know. It is called - - -

Mr Smyth: You tell me. You are the one telling the story.

MR STANHOPE: I will, Mr Smyth, in capital letters. I will, Chief Minister, in capital letters. It says "Notice of Withdrawal of Land", and attached to that is a plan with great big capital letters, Mr Smyth. It says "Plan of Withdrawal", Mr Smyth. These are the documents on which you based your decision to enter into an exclusive agreement. The fact is that you had in your possession two documents which notified you that the two blocks of land had been withdrawn.

Ms Carnell: No, that is not true.

MR STANHOPE: You just said it was. They were the three documents you just said you had. I am happy for you to admit, Chief Minister, that the three sets of documents you had were those three, two of which said "Notice of Withdrawal of Land". That is not all of course, Mr Speaker. I will pass on to other issues. When did the Government become aware there was only one lease? This was - - -

Mr Humphries: Take your feet off the chair, Mr Stanhope. This is government property, Mr Stanhope. Thank you.

MR STANHOPE: Yes, the land at Kinlyside was government property, too, Mr Humphries.

Mr Humphries: It still is.

MR STANHOPE: Luckily it still is, no thanks to you. A question that occupied the minds of the Opposition was: When did the Government become aware there was only one lease? This is relevant if the Government was aware before 22 December that there was only one lease. As the Chief Minister just says, they were not, and they told us time and time again they were not. Mr Humphries tells us the same. Mr Humphries told us on 20 May:

As it transpired - and this information became clear, at least to the Government, only very recently; that is, in the last seven days ...

Mrs Carnell, on 19 May, said:

It came to the Government's notice, I have to say, that these leases were not in the hands of the Boltons - even though they are physically in their hands; they still actually have the leases. They were handed back in ... 1991. That information came to the knowledge of the Government last Friday, Mr Speaker.

Ms Carnell repeated that claim on 21 May.

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