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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (2 February) . . Page.. 50 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

"Oh, well, they elect us to make decisions". Seemingly, the implication of that is that there is no issue upon which we should ask the public what they think. Even the Government itself occasionally contemplates the possibility of a referendum on some issues - for example, what the voting system should look like. When we come to this major issue of the disposal of the biggest public asset that we own, it says, "We, the Government, are going to make a decision and we are not interested in what you, the community, have to say". The community does not buy that. The community has expressed very strongly a view that they do not want their public asset sold. So it is not good enough for the Chief Minister and the Government merely to shrug it off and say, "They elect us to make decisions and we are going to make the decisions, right or wrong". There are some issues on which you can do that, and we do it every day in the week and every day in the year; but there are other issues that are more important than that where the opinion of the public does have to carry some weight. I submit this is one.

Another issue that has been dealt with to some degree already is the question of this matter being dealt with to some degree by stealth. Only a year ago we went to an election, and it was not on the agenda. The authority for that is the Chief Minister herself. She said, "The sale of ACTEW is not on the agenda". Yet mysteriously, within weeks of that election, it became a matter that was very much on the agenda, and here we are today debating whether the Government's decision and the Government's course of action are acceptable to the Assembly and to the community or whether they are not.

Despite the Chief Minister shrugging off the view of the public, I submit that had she gone to the election a year ago with this matter on the agenda she might conceivably have had the endorsement of the community to go ahead. But she did not seek it and she did not have it. Therefore, it is a matter for considerable debate here whether or not what the Government wants to do should go ahead. I have accused the Government before of government by stealth. The insurance levy is a classic case. The Government said, "We are not imposing a levy on the taxpayer. We are imposing a levy on the insurance companies, aren't we?". Every person who ever takes out an insurance policy of any kind, whether it is on their car, their house, their furniture, is now paying this levy. The Attorney-General says, "We are not putting a tax on people. We are putting a tax on insurance companies". I said then that it was taxation by stealth and I repeat it. This is of the same ilk, although of an order of much greater magnitude. I have to keep asking: If you are going to do this with insurance levies and you are going to try to do it with selling off the Territory's major asset, what other little goodies have you got up your sleeve that you are going to pull out next week or the week after or the months after that? What other matters of stealth are you dreaming up that one day you will pull out of the hat and say, "Look, here is another white rabbit."? It is about time the Government came clean on what their intentions are.

I have said that one of the reasons why I was not happy about discussing this matter today was that I was not sure that all the information was on the table. I have been seeking information from the Government for a long time, without any success at all. That is why I wanted to see the superannuation committee report. I think it was a good one despite the Government's position. It undermines the Government's position. Obviously they are not going to find it acceptable on any grounds. I found it informative and I found it useful, and it helps me to make up my mind. But there is still a lot of information that the Government could have put on the table. I remind the Government that it was the

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