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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 831 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

I am sure that the next generation of Canberrans will be thankful for the way in which this Government has looked to the future and secured energy opportunities under this proposal. I commend the Bill to the house. I also commend the Government for the innovative way in which it has gone about it. I compliment both companies, AGL and ACTEW, and their respective boards, senior management and staff for the innovative way that this has been brought about.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (5.12): Mr Stanhope started his speech by referring to Mr Rugendyke in rather sad words. He used the word "inane". The word "inane" means empty, and that is all we have heard from the Opposition today - empty rhetoric. It is the same blinkered rhetoric which they go on with continually.

Mr Corbell asked earlier today whether it was a threat or blackmail, and Mr Moore retorted that it was a dire warning. We have given warnings over the last 18 months about potential job losses and the need for ACTEW to change. Some 200 jobs have now gone. They have gone because the Labor Party have stuck their heads in the sand on this issue, as they have done with so many issues. They are ideologically blinkered on issues such as this.

The retail arm of ACTEW is the only area which has a potential for growth. Its water and sewerage services are fixed. There is not real potential there for growth unless the city itself grows, and then it is finite. If you accept Labor's proposition of selling off the retail arm, you would sell it off in isolation. What you then do is condemn ACTEW to a slow and painful death, because they will still have to maintain the infrastructure without the ability to increase their revenue. So they will have to do the same job at a greater cost. To reduce costs, one must reduce staff.

What we have from the ideological blinkers on the other side, the Labor Party and the Greens, is a policy that will cost ACTEW and the ACT more jobs. We have already lost 200 jobs. Whilst the Labor Party write these off and paint them as blackmail and threats from companies like AGL, what they are are warnings from a market that knows what will happen. Those opposite simply choose to ignore that. They do not want to look at this in a reasonable fashion.

Mr Stanhope kept repeating the phrase "we'll all be rooned". Well, we will all be rooned if a clear decision is not made on the future of ACTEW today. Perhaps Mr Stanhope should tell the 200 people who have already lost their jobs why they have gone, when they were clearly warned that if action was not taken job losses would occur. It is not a threat and it is not blackmail, Mr Corbell. It is a simple, clear, concise warning. The Labor Party and the Greens have their fingerprints on the loss of those 200 jobs.

The ACTEW/AGL partnership will create jobs through the call centre and the power station. Mr Corbell said that the power station was just a carrot. He asked why we would build a power station. It is important to understand what a gas-powered fire

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