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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2576 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

When it became evident to those opposite that there would not be an estimates procedure, after all of the extremely serious comments they made during the debate about how many questions needed to be answered, it is surprising to say the least - - -

Mr Quinlan: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. Are we reflecting upon a previous vote of this Assembly?

MR SPEAKER: I sincerely hope not.

MS CARNELL: Not at all. Mr Speaker, as you know, the Assembly decided not to go ahead with an estimates committee, but that does not stop those opposite - in question time, through a briefing or by letters to me or to the Treasurer - from asking for clarification of any of the figures involved. None of that happened.

As I indicated to members last week, the financial statements I made available were the financial statements that Cabinet had when it had to make the decision on whether or not to go ahead. I do not think any government can be more open than that. The information that was given, contrary to comments made by Mr Quinlan, did include the basis for the level of confidence in the figures involved. Not only did we give the operating statement for next year, but we gave projections right through to year five. Remember that it is a five-year contract for the race. For the whole term of the race projections were provided, both in revenue terms and in expenses terms. Also given were a financial position document, cash flow documents and a breakdown of the projected crowd figures that were the basis of the business case/operating statement.

As those opposite would know, the basis of the business case, as I think I have said previously, is very conservative. We started with a figure of 50,000 people in the first year, even though we know that Adelaide got significantly more than that. We felt that it was appropriate to err on the side of conservatism in this area. As members will see from the documents I have already provided, we have projected that visitor numbers will increase by 10 per cent per annum from 50,000 in year one. We have even projected ticket prices in the information that has been given all the way through to year five. We have indicated that revenue calculations were based on 80 per cent of people purchasing lower priced tickets, with 20 per cent purchasing higher priced tickets. We have given information about what the cost of higher and lower priced tickets will be. For crowd projections, we based the information on the full range of expenses involved and the revenue involved, including corporate hospitality, government payments, and licensing. It is all there. Mr Speaker.

Mr Kaine, I started by saying that I do have a breakdown on the information that you required. I ran through some of it. I am more than happy to show you the full breakdown of the $4.5m capital injection in year one.

I wonder what other information those opposite want. They have not asked for it. Not one question have they asked. You would have to say that there is not any other information they want. They could not think of any questions to ask. The negativity from Mr Stanhope is typical of the Labor Party. If they were in government, we would never have a major event in this city. Those opposite would never have the guts or the commitment to make it happen for Canberra.

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