Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (5 May) . . Page.. 1344 ..
MR KAINE (continuing):
responsible at the end of the day. The Auditor-General is not. He is just doing his job to check to see what is going on out there. At the end of the day he has no responsibility to the taxpayer. We do. The Chief Minister has a responsibility to us.
I turn to the matter of the committee report which the Chief Minister drew upon a minute ago. She extrapolated and said, "The committee said that the Auditor-General was looking at all these things and we should let him get on with the job". That is not what we said. We said that the Auditor-General was looking at this matter and that we reserved our opinion until he came back with a further view. That is what the committee said and the Chief Minister, as always, tries to distort that to something that it was not. For heaven's sake, Chief Minister, come clean. Put the facts on the table so that we all know - and I am sure you do know - the facts. It is approaching the status of a scandal, and it is about time that the shadows were removed and the public at least knew what is going on.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move the two amendments to Mr Stanhope's motion circulated in my name.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: I move:
(1) Subparagraph (1)(b), after the word "Investment" add "and the original business case and other preparatory documentation upon which the Carnell Government based its decision to proceed with the Bruce Stadium redevelopment".
(2) Paragraph (1), add the following new subparagraph:
"(k) contracts and arrangements between the management and operators of Bruce Stadium and the tenant hirers of the Stadium;".
MR QUINLAN (11.34): I think it can be said that something is rotten at Bruce. We have, as members may well recall, asked the occasional question without notice and a few questions on notice in relation to Bruce Stadium, the marketing of Bruce Stadium and the financing of Bruce Stadium, and we have received precious little information. We have witnessed the creation of a complex corporate structure for overseeing the construction and the operations of the stadium, and we have understandably wondered why. I think I can quote a government representative who said, "It is a stadium; it is not rocket science". However, we seem to have created a corporate structure worthy of BHP. I think we have been weaving the tangled web.
I have asked the Chief Minister, in writing, for a copy of the Bruce business plan. I do not want the confidential briefing which carries with it constrictions on what I might do or say about the information I receive. I just want to look at the business plan for the public stadium. I would like to work on the basis that the public should be informed as to what is occurring there and what heir growing commitment is becoming. I have been
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .