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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (15 February) . . Page.. 32 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, let me give an example for the benefit of Mr Quinlan and members opposite. If I give Mr Quinlan my pen unconditionally as a gift, Mr Quinlan clearly owns the pen. If I give Mr Quinlan the pen but say at any stage, "You have to give the pen back to me", then who owns the pen?

Ms Carnell: You do.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think the answer is that I do. That is the arrangement which ACTEW and AGL are proposing to enter into.

Mr Quinlan: See you in court. What if I give you a dollar for the pen, Gary?

MR HUMPHRIES: "Have we left the door open?", Mr Quinlan asks. Have we left the door open for some other arrangement? Well, yes, until any deal is stitched up. Yes, the door is still open; but we are pursuing this particular arrangement because it presents, on the recommendation of the board of ACTEW, of the many which were put forward in the expression of interest process, the best opportunity to do what Mr Quinlan himself said last year we ought to be doing, and that is addressing the risk associated with at least some of ACTEW's activities. Mr Quinlan said only last Friday, "I think it is inevitable that ACTEW must get into a 50/50 deal on its retail operation".

Mr Quinlan: Retail operation.

MR HUMPHRIES: Retail operation. Mr Speaker, the deal we have put on the table does exactly that.

Mr Berry: And everything else.

MR HUMPHRIES: It provides for a sharing of risk, a sharing of exposure on the retail business - - -

Mr Hird: I want to hear this.

Mr Stanhope: You do not, Harold. You would be embarrassed.

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment, please. This is an important issue, and I think Mr Quinlan would like to hear what the Treasurer is saying.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Quinlan has asked why we were pushing this as a good deal before we finalised it. Well, the fact of the matter is that it was being attacked as something to be suspicious of by the Opposition before we finalised it, which rather forced us to defend what we were doing so far. If we were all prepared to step back and do nothing about judging this matter until such point as we had a deal worked out to present and to discuss, well, then we might have been in that; but you are not playing by those rules, so why should we?

Mr Quinlan: Because it would be good business.

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