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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 451 ..
MS CARNELL (continuing):
On two fronts, this Government has been taking tangible steps to improve the accountability and openness of the public sector. Put simply, what we have done is a first for the ACT. We have established a policy where none existed before. That is right; none existed before, despite the bleating of those on the other side of the Assembly.
To answer the second part of Mr Hird's question directly, it certainly does represent a change in the way in which issues of commercial-in-confidence have been approached by successive territory governments. I spoke before about the International Hotel School, VITAB, Canberra Milk and Harcourt Hill, to mention just a few of the secret issues that have come before this place. I want to talk about another concept that is alive and well in this place, and that is hypocrisy. In a media statement about the Bruce Stadium contract issued on 23 February, Mr Stanhope said:
We are talking about taxpayers' money. Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and with whom. That is particularly the case when taxpayers' money is committed to private companies who are tenants of a publicly owned facility.
Mr Speaker, remember that quote. I think it is high time that we shared with the people of Canberra some information that only recently came to my attention. In late 1994, just a few months before we came to office, the AFL for Canberra Committee presented a bid to the former Fitzroy Football Club in Melbourne to relocate to the national capital. It was a fine and worthy idea, and one that I am sure all members, with the possible exception of Ms Tucker, would have endorsed. But did you know that this bid was backed by the ACT Government? I did not know that. Mr Speaker, did you know that included in this bid was a commitment to a relocation payment of $1.25m, loans totalling some $900,000 over three years and payments of $550,000 each year for at least the first five years of the new club's operation? I did not know. Did you, Mr Speaker? I do not think so.
Did you know that a feasibility study was carried out on behalf of the ACT Government and paid for by taxpayers, Mr Speaker? This feasibility study was presented to Fitzroy and it contained the kinds of projections I have already spoken about. Did you know about a feasibility study funded by the taxpayer, Mr Speaker? I did not and I do not believe anybody else did. Did you know that feasibility study even existed? I did not. Did you know that it contained commitments totalling several million dollars, including access to Bruce Stadium as a tenant? I did not know that. Remember Mr Stanhope said just the other day:
Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and with whom. That is particularly the case when taxpayers' money is committed to private companies who are tenants of a publicly owned facility.
Is that not the exact concept of bringing the Fitzroy Football Club to Bruce Stadium? Is it not the case that we were potentially committing taxpayers' money to a private company which would be the tenant of a publicly owned facility? Too right it is; it is
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