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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 2163 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Do the members of the Labor Party recognise these words? Does the Labor Party platform come to mind when you hear those words? Does the Labor Party platform come to mind? It also refers to a drain on the public purse from the point of view of either profitability or capital raising. Actually, Mr Speaker, I have just quoted the four grounds which are referred to in the Labor Party's policy platform as the grounds upon which one may privatise. They are the four grounds. Mr Speaker, if ever - - -

Mr Stanhope: Absolutely.

Mr Berry: They have not been met.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the members opposite had a lot to say about being heard in silence. I would appreciate a bit of - - -

Mr Stanhope: When the debate is relevant, we will.

MR SPEAKER: Order! You will not, Mr Stanhope; you will listen in silence, please. Mr Humphries has the floor and I will protect you when your turn comes.

MR HUMPHRIES: Members of the Labor Party in that debate were referring to this very situation, the very situation which the Assembly is confronted with today, the sale of an entity like Ecowise which is not essential to the role or function of government, which is not going to threaten any important public benefit by its sale, which does not result in disadvantage to any key disadvantaged groups in the community and which, moreover - most importantly, perhaps - represents an important way of protecting the jobs of people who are employed by that service. That is also referred to in the Labor Party's own platform. That, Mr Speaker, more than anything else today, is what this motion is all about: The protection of employment, the protection of 50-odd people whose jobs and livelihoods may not survive if Ecowise does not radically restructure the way in which it performs its job at the moment. That is what this motion is all about.

Mr Speaker, Mr Corbell gave a very carefully couched and considered response, faithfully echoing the decision made, obviously against his will, in June of this year by the Labor Party conference. But the reality is that the essential tenet of his argument, which was that this is a profitable business, is a not entirely sound basis on which to base the argument put forward by Labor.

Mr Moore: That is the premise.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is the premise. The premise put by Labor is that this is a sound business, that it has got a bright future, that it is pretty well always going to be profitable: Why should we sell it? Mr Speaker, the answer lies in an examination, and only a cursory examination, of the immediate future of ACTEW's Ecowise Services. Mr Speaker, there are four important contracts which Ecowise currently secures, which are coming up for expiry and which are going back into the open market for contest in the immediate future. I think it is those four contracts more than anything else which give a clear illustration of the risk which is posed to Ecowise at the moment.

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