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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 848 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

being, and I think it is the same objective that everybody else shares - that is, to preserve the interests of the ACT taxpayers, the ACT people as consumers and the employees of ACTEW.

I will table this document, Mr Speaker, because I think it is a significant document. Mr Mackay and Mr Pearce have written to me jointly and they have made certain undertakings in writing as to the preservation of employees' conditions and tenure as to the security of ACTEW's assets and as to the disposition of other parts of ACTEW including TransACT. More importantly, they have given an undertaking that they are willing to appear before relevant committees of the Assembly to answer questions, and to assure the Assembly that any contract or agreement meets all probity requirements and conforms with Assembly resolutions and law. They have also given an undertaking that they will provide fulsome reports on progress of the negotiations to this Assembly. I seek leave to table that document, Mr Speaker, because I think it is an important commitment from the two parties to the joint venture, and I would be interested to see whether anybody in this place is going to challenge the commitments given by those organisations to me and to the Assembly.

Leave granted.

MR KAINE: Having regard to what those two organisations have committed to me and now to the Assembly, I say that the role of this legislature is to monitor, to take AGL and ACTEW up on the offer that they have made. (Extension of time granted) Our role is to take them up on their offer and ask them to provide regular reports to this place on how those negotiations are doing, and to invite them, from time to time, to appear before the relevant committee of this place.

I would put the proposition that the relevant committee is the Finance and Public Administration Committee, of which Mr Quinlan is the chair and I am the deputy. You, Mr Speaker, are the other member. We three can properly monitor what those two organisations are doing in putting the arrangements together and report to this Assembly on how things are going. That is the normal process, I believe, and it ought to be an acceptable one. I put that forward as an alternative to the sledgehammer approach that the Opposition is suggesting.

What we are all looking for is a successful outcome, Mr Speaker, and I do not believe that attacking AGL and ACTEW with a sledgehammer is all that guaranteed to produce the outcome that we want. I do not think that is a sensible approach at all, but I do believe that we should take them up on their offer. We should be doing what our role really is, and that is to monitor what they are doing. I believe that as part of that monitoring process, as they get closer and closer towards the end product in terms of heads of agreement, partnership agreements, operating contracts and the like, we can invite them along and say, "Tell us where you are at. Give us an outline of what you are doing". That will give us an opportunity to ask any questions that we think are pertinent and at the end of the day we can come to this Assembly with a report, as all committees do, and say either that we are happy with the way things are going or we are not happy and we think some things ought to change. That, I believe, is the proper place of a legislature in this.

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