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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 752 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

can proceed and we give away our final right of approval on it". That is completely unacceptable. My Labor colleagues and I will be upholding our responsibilities to the Canberra community. I hope other members in this place will be doing the same when the vote takes place.

There is a range of unanswered questions in this deal which have been completely ignored by this Government. Professor Allan Hodgson, Head of the School of Accounting, Banking and Finance in Griffith University in Queensland, highlights a range of these issues. He highlights the fact that there has been no assessment of the total value of the assets that are being pledged by both parties. Yet this Assembly is being asked to approve the deal. He highlights the fact that there are no estimates of the future profits from this venture. Yet this Assembly is being asked to approve the deal. He highlights the fact that there has been no assessment of the expected return from the current situation versus a number of different scenarios. Yet this Assembly is being asked to approve the deal.

He further highlights that it is important to quantify in dollar amounts the gains from the joint venture, and the financial costs of a range potential risk scenarios that may be faced as a result. Yet this Government, and the ACTEW board for heaven sake, are saying to this place, "Approve the deal and then we will work that out". That is disgraceful. Would any private company board be prepared to tolerate such a suggestion? It would not.

Professor Hodgson further highlights that there are no estimates of costs savings to be realised as a result of this joint venture, or of the financial benefits to consumers. I would have thought that that was kind of important, but we are being asked to approve the deal today - - -

Mr Stanhope: Blind.

MR CORBELL: As my leader, Mr Stanhope, says blind. That is not upholding our responsibilities. That is walking away from them, and we are not prepared to do that. There is no timetable for the equalisation payment to be made by AGL. Perhaps another interesting question posed by Professor Hodgson is this: Do we need to build a gas-fired generation plant in what is now a highly competitive electricity market? There is no explanation of, or justification for, that carrot either. All of these questions are unanswered. The Government acknowledges that they are unanswered. At the same time the ask is: "Approve the deal or we go away". That is simply disgraceful, unacceptable and an abandonment of our responsibilities to protect the best interests of the people of Canberra.

Finally, I wish to raise the question of the remuneration of the future directors of the joint venture company. Executive salaries, the remuneration of senior board members, are always of considerable concern to ordinary people in the ACT. The Government has not set out how the government-appointed directors of this joint venture or indeed a government CEO from the Territory will be remunerated.

Mr Humphries: You have not asked that question.

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