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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (2 March) . . Page.. 523 ..

MR SPEAKER: Standing order 117(a), which provides that questions shall be brief and relate to a single issue.

Mr Wood: Will you rigorously enforce the other one about answers?

MR SPEAKER: Standing order 118(a) provides that the answer to a question without notice shall be concise and confined to the subject matter of the question. I will be making a statement at the end of this question time.

Mr Berry: In anticipation of your statement, do you want me to repeat my supplementary question?

MR SPEAKER: No, I do not.

Mr Berry: Does the Minister think he can handle it without that?

MR SPEAKER: I am sure that the Minister is quite capable of picking it up.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry seems to be a bit confused. He told us in the original question that the prospect of a power station being built in the ACT seemed to be a good thing for the Territory.

Mr Berry: No, no. I rise to a point of order, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Berry. You know perfectly well that the Minister can answer the question as he sees fit.

MR HUMPHRIES: Before we even hear it, we know that there is no point of order, Mr Speaker. The fact is that the whole point of this exercise is about diversifying ACTEW's activities, giving it more irons in the fire.

Mr Berry: More risks, by the look of it.

MR SPEAKER: You are the one who is running the risk at the moment, Mr Berry, with your constant interjections.

MR HUMPHRIES: With each new business that ACTEW gets involved with, either through a partnership or through, say, the construction of a power station or whatever, ACTEW obviously acquire some measure of risk, but they also acquire opportunities by doing that and they acquire a chance to be part of a broader range of businesses that will allow ACTEW to grow. The question I pose to those who would be cajoled by the zealotry of those opposite in this place, the question I have to ask them, is: How do they think ACTEW is going to grow in the event that it does not enter into such a partnership? Where are its new customers going to come from? How is ACTEW going to get big enough to survive in this competitive market? Mr Speaker, quite clearly it cannot; quite clearly it cannot grow. I think that ACTEW needs to grow for the reasons I have outlined on innumerable occasions in this place - - -

Mr Quinlan: Not today.

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