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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (27 October) . . Page.. 2269 ..

Mr Corbell: Are you claiming that you have a mandate?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Corbell and Mr Berry claimed that that was a mandate of sorts.

Mr Corbell: Are you saying that you have a mandate?

MR HUMPHRIES: They are your words, Mr Corbell.

Mr Corbell: Do you have a mandate?

MR HUMPHRIES: They are the words of Mr Corbell and Mr Berry.

Mr Corbell: Do you have a mandate?

Mr Berry: Thirty-five per cent, just over a third.

Mr Stanhope: That is a funny old mandate.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please!

MR HUMPHRIES: I think the Hansard will show that I have said as much as all those opposite put together. Mr Speaker, the fact remains that the party on this side of the chamber made it crystal clear that we were going to keep the issue of ACTEW's privatisation in the public eye, as part of the public debate. We made it clear that we had commissioned advice on the future of that service. Your own statements during the campaign confirmed that you believed that that was a live issue in that respect.

In any case, Mr Speaker, we have got clear evidence before us now, evidence which we have tabled in this place, which says that we cannot as a community ignore the future danger to ACTEW and the superannuation debt which is facing the Territory. Mr Speaker, an inquest is going on at the moment in the ACT Coroners Court concerning the implosion of the Royal Canberra Hospital. One of the issues in that inquest is whether the Government ignored evidence before it.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, is it appropriate for the Minister to stray into the area of an inquest that is proceeding?

MR SPEAKER: He has not.

Mr Berry: If you want to open up the debate about the inquest and start dragging out bits and pieces of evidence, I do not mind.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Berry. The Attorney-General is well aware of what he can and cannot say in this chamber about an inquest.

Mr Berry: I am not so sure that he is.

MR SPEAKER: I am happy to hear him out.

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