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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (28 October) . . Page.. 2381 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Mr Humphries, thank you for providing a copy of Mr Corbell's letter to the Canberra Times, because his letter confirms that. You damn your own argument, Mr Humphries. What a joke you are to come in here and suggest that Mr Corbell has used a set of figures in a devious way when you supply the advice and the confirmation that, in fact, the figures to which Mr Corbell was referring were for the years 1995 and 1996. The figures are spot on.

Mr Smyth attempts to divert us from the job here by talking about how we have to keep things in context. Isn't it funny, Mr Speaker? Neither Mr Humphries nor Mr Moore or Mr Smyth referred to the two paragraphs which followed the figures about which they are complaining on page 77 of the uncorrected proof Hansard. It goes on to say - - -

Mr Humphries: Because they are not relevant to this debate, that is why.

MR BERRY: They are not relevant to this debate! They are relevant only if you think you can shoot a hole in them. Of course, they were also referring to Mr Loney's report, and Mr Corbell adequately quoted them. He said:

They each share a third of the city of Melbourne.

He talked about the supplies, saying:

Of supply averages, that is the number of power failures, blackouts and times when customers were off supply, has increased, and it has increased, Mr Speaker, to a rate of 112.5 and 170.2 minutes per customer, per year on average in Melbourne. That is of two of the three companies that supply power in the privatised market in Melbourne. What is even more illuminating, Mr Speaker, if you will excuse the pun, is that in the last year of public ownership the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in 1993, which was the last year of public ownership, achieved an off supply average of 70 minutes per customer, per year.

That puts it in context, I think. What we are demonstrating here is that the outages have grown under private ownership. It is in context. Everything is in context here, Mr Speaker. Let us compare some other figures.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. It is a perfectly reasonable point of order. If Mr Berry is saying that Mr Corbell quoted other figures accurately on that day to somehow deny the assertion that he quoted these figures inaccurately - - -

Mr Corbell: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker.

Mr Humphries: I have not finished my point of order, Mr Speaker.

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