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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 2 Hansard (10 March) . . Page.. 524 ..

MS CARNELL

dangerous this is and why Mr Service - I am sure that he will not mind me using his name - is saying that he does not believe that people who are serious professional company executives should subject themselves to that.

In her letter, Ms Tucker does not say anywhere that she does not like or that she has any doubt about the CVs of the people we put forward. There is nothing about that anywhere, just "we want a bigger list, we want to know the people you knocked back and we want to know how you sought nominations". I have to say to members of the crossbench, members of the Opposition and Mr Quinlan that, if we pass this legislation today and you end up having to handle this legislation, to go out for nominations for people for multimillion-dollar Territory owned corporations and to have the names of the people who fail put to the committees, tell me how you will manage that. Mr Quinlan, you were part of ACTEW. You know that that is not the way it works.

Mr Speaker, if we end up with a situation here where the Assembly is able to go down the path that Ms Tucker has so ably shown can occur, we will end up with second best. This is not going to kill the Government. It is not a disaster. The people that are currently on our Territory owned corporations are there for a period of time. It is potentially the next government who will pick up the tab here. It will be the next government that ends up with - - -

Mr Wood: We will do that.

MS CARNELL: It more than likely will be us, if you guys keep up your current performance. But the fact is, Mr Speaker, that it is just stupid, and Ms Tucker has shown what will happen, all by herself. It is exactly what I said in my speech when this Bill was debated last time, and Ms Tucker has shown it to be the truth. Do we want the best or do we want the second best? Mr Speaker, I want the best. I would assume that other members of this Assembly want the best.

Is there any indication anywhere that the Government has put onto Territory owned corporation boards people who are not the best? Is there any indication of any political hacks, members of the Liberal Party, people who are on there for any of the reasons that anyone has spoken about? There is not one indication, not one example, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: We would do better.

MS CARNELL: Mr Berry says that they would do better. So, what he is already saying is that the Assembly wants to do the appointments, not the Government. But yesterday in the debate on the budget those opposite were saying that we are run by executive government. The Executive have to stand by their decisions; they have to stand up and be counted; it is a Westminster system; that is what this is about. Well, Mr Speaker, it is what it is about. Yes, we do stand by the decisions that we make. It is a Westminster system. It is an executive government.

Mr Speaker, I urge members of the Assembly to think twice about this matter. It will not undermine this Government at any particular level, but over time it has the potential to cause a problem. Is there a problem now? Do you fix a problem that does not exist?

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