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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (28 October) . . Page.. 2374 ..

MR MOORE: The opportunity was given. A second opportunity was given in answer to a question. Mr Humphries, still believing that you had given this Assembly an entirely incorrect impression, wanted to ensure that the Assembly members understood that in Victoria, in the particular area you were talking about, with customer minutes off supply, there had been a significant improvement under a privatised system, not the opposite as you had talked about. He attempted to correct that in answer to a question by Mr Hird. But no, that was not good enough. Mr Berry, in particular, had to pull him up and say, "No, no, no, this is an entirely inappropriate way", in spite of the fact that Mr Humphries had gone and talked to Mr Corbell about this issue and given the opportunity to correct the record. All Mr Corbell had to do was correct the record, nothing else. All he had to do was say, "I am sorry about the fact that I have created a different impression". But oh, no, we will not have that. By correcting the record it would be quite clear that there had been a significant improvement in the issue that we are talking about, customer minutes off supply in the Victorian electricity system since privatisation. It is a factor to be considered in this debate, just one factor.

Unless we start making sure that we get things on the record that are correct, the debate is going to be impossible. We really have to ensure that all members provide information that is accurate and not misleading. We all know that there is a big difference between the spin we put on things when we try to put the best possible light on the information we have as opposed to clearly misleading the Assembly. Mr Speaker, I would still like to see Mr Corbell stand up and say to us, "I created an impression that I ought not to, and perhaps it was to do with my interpretation of Mr Loney's report, but it is quite clear now what the facts are and the matter is finished". It is as simple as that.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.13): I am intrigued by this new approach of Mr Moore to censure motions. I regret that Mr Moore did not participate in the censure motion on Hall/Kinlyside. We might have had the value of his wisdom about the fact that in 25 separate questions and through an MPI we had the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister consistently misleading this house. Mr Moore did not even see fit to participate in the debate and suggest that maybe that matter could have been adjusted by a simple apology from the Deputy Chief Minister. I am absolutely staggered at your double standard on these issues, Mr Moore. The fact that you can stand up and speak for this censure in light of your attitude, particularly to that censure, is truly staggering to me, Mr Moore.

I think we need to look at the genesis for this motion. This motion did not arise out of anything that Mr Corbell said or did not say yesterday. This motion arose out of the Canberra Times on Saturday when the Canberra Times said:

Chief Minister Kate Carnell has unearthed a comatose monster and for two weeks now she's been doing her best to jolt it to life and scare the wits out of an unsuspecting public.

The monster - largely unseen till the sale of Actew landed on the agenda - is the territory's massive superannuation liability.

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