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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 807 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

We in the ACT can have a great and extraordinary advantage if we look to the future instead of the past. A view that looks to the past - even the best of the past - is the same sort of view that Poland took with their cavalry in 1939. The result will be the same as that suffered by Poland. It will be devastating. Once ACTEW starts going backwards, there will be no stopping it - the retail arm will be gone.

Things have changed in the market. It is time for us to ensure that we can deliver what is in the best interests of the community. The best interests of the community are not just about gaining jobs at the call centre, the gas-fired power station and the potential for increased money; they are also about how the community views itself and how the Government handles its superannuation liability. This joint venture proposal retains the possibility that a future government - - -

Mr Berry: Potential.

MR MOORE: A future government being unhappy with this situation will still have the alternative of purchasing it back.

Mr Corbell: We are purchasing it back? That means we are selling it, does it?

MR MOORE: There is the option of buying back their share of the joint venture. We have here an opportunity to benefit the people of Canberra. It is an opportunity that we certainly cannot turn our backs on. Mr Rugendyke, Mr Osborne and I should step back from the ideological bent of both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party and say, "Does this particular proposal deliver for the community some benefits? What are those benefits? What are the downsides? Do the benefits outweigh the downsides?".

In almost every decision we ever make in this place there are downsides. Those people see it as their job to focus totally on the downsides. It is the job of the crossbenchers - Mr Kaine, Mr Rugendyke, Mr Osborne and Ms Tucker - to focus on whether the positives outweigh the negatives. That is how these decisions are made responsibly to the benefit of the community. That is why it is that I personally support this motion and the legislation.

MR RUGENDYKE (3.50): Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: I thought you were going to listen to all the arguments before you made up your mind.

MR RUGENDYKE: I have made up my mind, yes.

MR SPEAKER: Would you mind sitting down, Mr Rugendyke. Sit down, Mr Berry.

Mr Berry: Make up your mind. Just listen to the arguments.

MR RUGENDYKE: We get criticised for not making up our mind. We get criticised for making up our mind.

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