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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 3633 ..
MS CARNELL (continuing):
at Canberra Hospital South, as it was when it was finished - the diagnostic and treatment wing. Who did it? Project Coordination.
It is not a company without a background or a company that had not done very competent work in the health arena, work at the Hotel Kurrajong, work for the previous Labor Government, and work for Mr Humphries as Minister. In recent days they have done the private psychiatric wing at Calvary Hospital and they have done the new medical specialist area at Calvary Hospital. They have done an enormous amount at John James Hospital. It is not a company that just flitted in all of a sudden without a background. It is a company that has done some very competent work for the ACT Government over a prolonged period. I think it is unfortunate that Mr Stanhope has not mentioned any of that when he has been, I think, extraordinarily defamatory of the company in many circumstances. But others will determine whether that is the case.
Let me quote from the coroner's report:
The Territory was entitled to proceed on the basis that Totalcare would take all the requisite steps including the obtaining of such expert advice as was necessary to allow the project to proceed efficiently, safely and effectively.
In other words, the Territory was entitled to proceed - the coroner's comments, not mine. Let me quote again:
It was genuinely assumed by the ACT and fairly in my assessment that both organisations would competently perform the task of selecting an appropriate and experienced contractor and ultimately an appropriate method of demolition.
Those are not my words, Mr Speaker; they are the words of the coroner. The coroner has said that it was appropriate for us, for the Government, to accept that Totalcare and Project Coordination would do the job appropriately.
I have yet to hear anybody opposite, at least publicly, repeat those statements from the coroner's report. Why, Mr Speaker? It is because it just does not suit them. The fact that the coroner has said categorically that it was appropriate to accept that there was expertise in Totalcare to do this job simply does not suit those opposite. On this basis it can be asserted that, in relation to such a complex technical task, the Government was entitled and, I have to say, is entitled to rely on the competence of the process it set in motion and the people involved.
I think it is important to talk about the people involved because they have been talked about a lot today. Apart from Mr Walker, the people involved were all appointed by the previous Government. They were not people who were put on contract - shock, horror - by this Government and brought in from other governments or the private sector. They were people who had been permanent public servants in the Territory over a long period of time and were, I have to say, appointed by those opposite. Mr Speaker, does that not
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