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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (30 June) . . Page.. 1775 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, it is now that we come to the crux of the matter. Phase 1 of the project was committed. The money appropriated for phase 1 was spent. Mr Speaker, the bucket was empty and the election loomed - an election at which the Chief Minister intended to run on the strength of her financial management skills. Phase 1 had taken all the funds, but the eastern stand was still to be covered and the prospect of private sector finance had vanished. What to do, Mr Speaker, what to do? The answer? Do not worry about the law, do not go back to the Assembly for approval, just spend.

At this point it is relevant to refer to the minutes of meeting No. 5 of the project control group, included in papers released to the Assembly by the Government, to get some understanding of what was occurring within the Government. (Extension of time granted) As I said, at this point it is relevant to refer to the minutes of the meeting to get an understanding of what was occurring and to understand the scenario at the time of the minutes - November 1997. Point 5.6.2 of the minutes says:

two months before the election; phase 1 was under way and the money had run out -

Mr Speaker, what does that extract from the minutes reveal? Put plainly, it reveals that those compulsive gamblers, the Chief Minister and Treasurer and the Under Treasurer, put their money on a horse called private sector financing. If their horse had come home, they could have put the money back in the till. But the horse did not complete the race and they needed another way out. Cabinet considered its options at a meeting in December. The formal decision was taken to continue to spend, to ignore the requirement that only the parliament can appropriate the expenditure of public money.

Mr Speaker, that is the moment that the law was breached. The first cheque was written - for $1.8m, and one of seven totalling $9.714m - on 24 February 1998. It was a cheque that should have carried the signatures of at least nine members of this Assembly, but it had only those of the Government. The Government took this action apparently confident that a second attempt to secure private sector finance could be secured by 30 June. But the proposed financing structure negotiated at that stage with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and County Natwest also fell through.

In any event, with the collapse of this second attempt to secure private funds, someone twigged, late in the financial year, that the books would not look too flash when the Auditor-General undertook his annual inspection. So a scheme was dreamt up to balance the books for the end of the financial year. We know now what that scheme was: The Commonwealth Bank loaned the Government the $9.7m for 24 hours. It was, in the view of Mr John Sackar, a daylight facility. I have also heard such transactions referred to, quaintly, as balance day transactions. It was certainly curious and, in Mr Sackar's view, unlawful.

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