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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 3712 ..

MR SPEAKER: Ah, there is a media release then?

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, there is, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Very well.

MR HUMPHRIES: It urges the Government to proceed with this project with all due haste. I quote:

Simply giving the go-ahead, Mr Speaker.

Mr Stanhope: Subject to the outcomes of the business plan. Read that bit too.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sorry; my copy seems to have lost those words from the end of that sentence, Mr Stanhope.

Mr Stanhope: They are not in that sentence. They are higher up.

MR HUMPHRIES: I do not know what happened to them. Perhaps my printer failed at that instant as the sentence got to the end and accidentally printed a full stop at the end of "go-ahead" by mistake.

Mr Speaker, I think it is important for members to be aware of the process to be used here. There is indeed, to use Mr Stanhope's favourite phrase, a process at work here. That process involves the agreement by the board of Totalcare to the proposal and then approval by the voting shareholders, Mrs Carnell and I. Members may not be aware that Totalcare has commissioned an independent due diligence investigation of the business case for establishing this quarry in the Yarrowlumla Shire in New South Wales. While this thorough and appropriate process goes on, Mr Speaker - that report has not been provided yet by the consultants - we have Mr Stanhope's press release. "TotalCare quarry plans should go ahead", urges Mr Stanhope.

Mr Speaker, as I said earlier, not only has the board of Totalcare yet to agree to this proposal but it is still awaiting the final report of the due diligence investigation. There are a number of important issues contained in that investigation which have yet to be put on the table for Totalcare to look at, much less for the voting shareholders to look at. They are things like market demand, sales revenue and, of course, very importantly, in light of yesterday's debate, risk management. Mr Speaker, that has to stop Mr Stanhope from going to the media and saying, "Forget about the process. We do not need a process here. Just do it. Just go ahead and give this proposal the big tick".

I quote again from Mr Stanhope:

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