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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (2 March) . . Page.. 520 ..

MR QUINLAN: I will just ask this question, then: Does the Treasurer recall a similar letter from Mr Mackay, including a scare tactic of staff losses if we do not sell ACTEW, emerging at about the same crucial time in the debate last year?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, if Mr Quinlan wants to characterise the warnings of John Mackay, the CEO of ACTEW, as scare tactics, that is fine. All I can say is that we all have to assess these sorts of statements on the basis of what we understand to be the situation from our own observation of the particular position ACTEW is in at the moment and on the basis of the credibility that we attach to the statements by chief executives such as Mr Mackay. I, for my part, can say that I think that Mr Mackay is a highly credible and very respected CEO, that he carries in his pocket at all times the best interests of ACTEW and that he has made the comments about the loss of jobs on the basis of his reading of the situation, which I think is pretty good advice. I for one propose to heed the warning that he has given.

MR KAINE: My question, through you, Mr Speaker, is to the Chief Minister and it is also about the Bruce Stadium. I will try to keep my preamble marginally shorter than Mr Rugendyke's. My question flows from an interesting article that I found on the back page of today's Canberra Times in the sports section. The articles is headed "Officials guarantee stadium surface", and it concerns fears by the Canberra Raiders that the staging of a rock concert at Bruce Stadium on Saturday night might have deleterious effects on the playing surface for Monday night's big game against Auckland. I know that they are quite concerned about that, as also were they by the fact that they had to move the game from Sunday to Monday anyway. But what really caught my eye in this interesting article was that the soothing assurances that were being given by a Bruce Stadium management spokesman were from Geoff Harris. I ask the Chief Minister: Is this the Geoff Harris who was formerly a local ABC radio reporter and is now one of the spin doctors working on your personal staff? If so, are you satisfied that it is appropriate for one of your political staffers to be speaking on behalf of a government agency on something which, presumably, would be a more appropriate function for a Stadiums Corporation employee?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I have to say that I have not read the article, but I do not believe that the Geoff Harris who works for me is a spokesperson for the stadium, nor would he be. We also know that the usual approach that journalists take when they quote our media people is to say that a spokesperson for the Minister involved said something, rather than to quote their names.

MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. If it were the case that the Mr Geoff Harris referred to is the person who works in the Chief Minister's office, is this not further proof that, like so many other disasters presided over by the Government, it is in fact being managed in the Chief Minister's own office, or is it simply perhaps another example of the degree of multiskilling required of staffers these days, who also have to be Public Service managers and decision-makers?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, my staff are very multiskilled.

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