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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 2160 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

We will match that in less than two years if everything remains stable. Mr Speaker, that exposes what this sale is all about - a grab for a quick buck at the expense of the long term for the Territory and its assets. This Assembly should not support that, and Labor certainly will not.

Mr Speaker, the Government has justified the sale into private hands on the grounds that it is being bought by the employees of Ecowise. Labor has sympathy for their position. We recognise that there has been a great deal - - -

Ms Carnell: It does not look like it, Simon, I have to tell you.

Mr Moore: Why did you ask them what they would take?

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, we heard the Chief Minister in silence, absolute silence, and we would expect the same from that side of the house.

MR SPEAKER: I appreciate that, Mr Corbell.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, we recognise that there has been a great deal of insecurity within ACTEW and its subsidiary companies as a result of the Government's move to prepare the organisation for privatisation. We understand that there is a sense of insecurity which may have led many workers, quite reasonably, to accept the notion of a staff buyout. However, it must be remembered that the ACTEW board and the Government made a decision to sell Ecowise Services and that, if the employees would not buy it, it was going to be purchased by someone else. That is the reality, Mr Speaker. Either way, the decision was made to sell the asset owned by each and every one of us into private hands. As we have already made clear, what may be a good deal for the employees is not necessarily a good deal for the Territory, and those are the grounds on which we must make our decision today.

What is a good deal for the Territory? Mr Speaker, it is important to point out that there are no guarantees for the job security of employees under the proposed private structure, nor are there any guarantees that a sale will not result in the sale of Ecowise to another private company as soon as it leaves Territory hands. So, Mr Speaker, any confidence members may have in this place about jobs and job security through privatisation must be qualified and must be cautious.

Mr Speaker, the Government's other arguments that have been put forward in relation to privatisation and why they have justified it have been to do with the constraints of the corporate structure, the costs associated with Ecowise being part of ACTEW's corporate structure. We were grateful for the advice we received from the officials and employees of Ecowise at a briefing on Tuesday. They indicated to us at that briefing that most of these constraints were to do with the accountability and reporting mechanisms that Ecowise had through its parent body, ACTEW, to this Assembly. They indicated that

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