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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 5 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 1235 ..

Marketing and Promotion Campaign Contract

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I have a question to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, I go back to some questions that I asked you in May about the Canberra branding campaign. Part of my question which you did not answer and which I would now like you to address was whether any person acting for the ACT Government and involved in the negotiations of the contract with J. Walter Thompson was paid any fee for doing so. If the answer is yes, can you say to whom it was paid and how much was paid?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I think that the people who work for the ACT Government are paid salaries.

Mr Kaine: That is not my question, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: Well, you said somebody working for the ACT Government.

Mr Kaine: Yes, I asked were they paid any fee for their service.

MS CARNELL: Over and above what they are paid in their salaries?

Mr Kaine: Well, what do you think the question meant?

MS CARNELL: I do not know.

Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, I think the Chief Minister is being deliberately obtuse, and I draw attention to the fact that she failed to answer this question before. I am now putting it quite bluntly, and I will repeat it if the Chief Minister requires me to do so. Was any person working on the side of the Government in negotiations with J. Walter Thompson paid any fee for being involved in those negotiations? If so, who was paid and how much? I think that is a pretty specific question.

MS CARNELL: Well, Mr Speaker, I assume that Mr Kaine means somebody who is not an ACT Government employee. Is that a fair statement?

Mr Kaine: Well, it may be a government employee or it may be somebody who is not. I am asking you the question.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, certainly not to my knowledge. I certainly will, but again, provide information for Mr Kaine, as I have in the past, on the whole payment schedule of the people who have been paid with regard to the Feel the Power campaign. I thought I had provided that information before, but I am happy to provide it again.

MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, in answer to my earlier question in May you said that the Government up to that point had paid a total of about $10,000 to J. Walter Thompson in licence fees. Can you tell me how much has been paid until today?

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