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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 2795 ..

MS CARNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. What defied logic and showed no economic credibility was the fact that Mr Berry, in this press release, had a table explaining to everybody how he worked out his figures. When this came into my office, one of my staff - who, I have to say, is very competent but does not have an economic background - looked at it and said, "You can't add up dividends and income, can you?". I looked at her and said, "No, you can't". So there was not only an economic credibility problem, but a logic problem. One of my staff, who honestly does not have an economic background, looked at it once and said, "This is garbage". Anybody would have known it was garbage if they knew anything - not about economics, not about accountancy - about basic financial information.

Mr Corbell: One hundred and seventy-five major contracts - - -

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Corbell.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, it seems that Mr Berry and maybe Mr Quinlan added together ACTEW's dividends and profits and were quite happy to put those out in a media release last Thursday. What it shows is absolutely no financial credibility, no capacity, even when it is so obvious, to work out what the problem was. But even worse, Mr Berry added the cash dividends out of the cash flow statement to profits from the operating statement. It is like adding apples and oranges. I do not know what you would end up with.

Mr Berry also added the streetlights, and I suspect that in his new brochure he is still doing it. It would not be surprising. Mr Speaker, he added the sale of the streetlights. But this cannot be done, because ACTEW receives an asset and an income stream in return for a cash payment. It is not just a dividend to the ACT Government. So he is wrong again. Mr Berry's pamphlet, I think, destroys once and for all the credibility of those opposite.

Then, of course, we saw on Saturday the "Don't blame me, it was Ted Quinlan's fault" approach in the Canberra Times. I have to say, whether that is the case or not, I do not think it is the approach that this side of the house would have taken. But what we saw this morning from Mr Quinlan was an approach of saying: "Yes. Hey, one of my staff got the spreadsheet wrong. Oops, it is a bit of a problem; but, look, don't worry about it. It's not a big issue". Well, I have to say that it is a big issue. The big issue, Mr Speaker, is that thousands of Canberrans, according to those opposite, have got a brochure which is wrong.

Mr Berry: Thousands more are going to get them, too.

MS CARNELL: Mr Berry makes the comment again. I think Mr Wood said tens of thousands. They have got a brochure that is wrong. And members opposite think it is funny, Mr Speaker. Well, we do not think it is funny, and we would like to see from Mr Berry, or Mr Quinlan - we do not mind which - a press release saying: "Kate Carnell got it right". The financial credibility lies with this side of the house. In other words,

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