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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 1219 ..

Mr Corbell: What about responsible government?

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MS CARNELL: Thank you. Mr Speaker, what Mr Stanhope did was work up the situation that occurred up to a preliminary agreement being entered into to set some sort of standards here. Those opposite entered into a joint venture agreement when the accountants said it was a bad idea. They entered into an agreement with a joint venture partner that they had not checked out financially and that had a structure that exposed the Territory significantly. They entered into a joint venture agreement with a company that ended up choosing a project manager without going through a formal tender process. The principal of the project management company was also a director of Cygnet. It is hard to believe they would do this, Mr Speaker. Those opposite, in terms of the standards they set for joint ventures, went down a path of no tendering and they are arguing here, shock, horror, that the Government entered into a preliminary agreement without a tender. Mr Speaker, those opposite did not go down the path of a tender for the project manager.

Mr Berry: So what? We did not mislead anybody either. We did not mislead you, though.

MS CARNELL: You actually did. Those opposite generally, with the Harcourt Hill approach, did everything wrong. Mr Speaker, in terms of how we approached the Kinlyside deal, there was community consultation, public meetings, and members of the Assembly from both sides, including the Opposition, were driven around the whole property. There were questions on radio. I think the Greens, Lucy Horodny, asked me a question in September in this place on the Kinlyside deal. It was not exactly secret. It was very much out there in the open. Through this whole approach Mr Whitcombe made it clear to everybody that he was bringing the whole of the Hillview property. We all believed that. You all believed that. So did we. We believed it. As we can see from the notes that I have quoted already - I quoted in full rather than in part, as Mr Stanhope did - Annabelle Pegrum made it clear that Mr Whitcombe believed he was bringing the whole of the Hillview station. John Harris, Mr Whitcombe's solicitor, made it clear that he was unaware that any of the leases had been withdrawn. This is all in writing. What we are talking about here is what we believed. If we all believed that Mr Whitcombe was bringing the whole of the Hillview property, and the preliminary agreement that was signed had a map including the whole of the Hillview property - - -

Mr Stanhope: It means you were reckless.

MS CARNELL: I will get to recklessness in a minute because that brings us back to Harcourt Hill.

Mr Stanhope: It means you were reckless.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Interjections from either side of the house are out of order.

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