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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 12 Hansard (25 November) . . Page.. 3716 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

"They're not hiding their heads in the sand. They want to help secure a future for the business, and themselves.

"The quarry presents a good opportunity, particularly with the prospect of the Very Fast Train project getting underway in the foreseeable future.

"The VFT has almost worked through the proving up stage and a definitive commitment from government is not too far away.

"It's one step closer to starting. If it goes ahead it will require an enormous amount of aggregate to support trackworks between Canberra and Goulburn.

"Totalcare's Williamsdale quarry would stand a good chance of being one of the main suppliers for that aggregate.

"That's another reason for the Government to give the go ahead," Mr Stanhope said.

MS TUCKER: My question is directed to the Treasurer, Mr Humphries, and it relates to section 56 in Civic. Minister, last week you announced that the Queensland Investment Corporation had been awarded preferred tenderer status for the development of section 56, beating two locally based rival bids. Will you be releasing the report of the assessment panel which examined the three bids and which selected QIC, and also the report of the probity adviser, given that when you were planning Minister in 1997 you released similar details of the assessment of tenders for section 41 in Manuka? I also note that at the time of this release you said in your media comments that the public release of this report, and I quote, "signified the Government's absolute commitment to public consultation and a real and genuinely accountable decision-making process". Does this commitment still apply to section 56?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Ms Tucker for that question. The Government's view about process here is that the process that we have outlined already publicly should be followed with respect to section 56. What we did in August of last year was to initiate a process that sought expressions of interest first of all in the development of section 56 and part of section 35, and that was a two-stage process. Following an evaluation of the expressions of interest, it was announced in December of last year that there were three consortia who were being asked to submit a detailed submission as part of a select tender process.

Those tenders have now been assessed. As a result, Queensland Investment Corporation has been selected as the preferred tenderer and it has that preferred tenderer status while further work continues on the firming up of its bid and the assessment of whether its proposals meet a number of criteria which have already been tabled in this place, such as, how much would be paid by way of a premium for the right to develop the section 56

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