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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 852 ..

Mr Berry: Okay, thank you.

MR HUMPHRIES: You did. You said you likened the development of this joint venture to the advent of Patrick Stevedoring in the ACT.

Mr Berry: So it is not AGL now?

MR HUMPHRIES: No. Well, it could be ACTEW that is going to be Patrick Stevedoring. I concede that. Yes, I was a little bit hasty. It may be that Mr Berry was saying that it is ACTEW that is going to become the equivalent of Patrick Stevedoring. Either way, Mr Speaker, it is pretty insulting to the ACT's major utility or to AGL, one or the other.

Mr Speaker, I do not believe that there is a case for adjourning this matter. I believe that the evidence is now on the table as to whether or not this is a good proposition to further explore. I have to say that it is simply inconsistent for the Labor Party to say, "We want you to do some further negotiation and then we will give you the green light", when only a year ago they told this place that it was wrong for the Government to conduct negotiations before we had been given a green light. We have it in Hansard, Mr Corbell. There is no point shaking your head. It is in Hansard. You criticised this Government, again and again, day after day, for daring to go away and commission fairly major reports on things like valuation when - - -

Mr Corbell: We criticised you because you were breaking an election promise. Do you remember that one? An election commitment.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, that was not what you said at the time. What you said at the time was: "It is wrong for the Government to commission major reports on this matter in advance of an Assembly approval". You actually said at the time, "You have gone away and you have done these reports on valuation. How dare you do that before the Assembly has given an approval". Today we have heard the argument: "You should have done your evaluations before you come to ask for the Assembly's approval. How much is the equalisation payment going to be?". I have said not that I do not know, Mr Speaker, but that the valuation will have to be done before we can indicate what the payment will be, and that it is estimated, on my best advice at this stage, to be approximately $100m; but no-one can make guarantees about what size, if any, that figure will be. That is a perfectly consistent statement to make. Because I cannot give you a valuation tonight, we are told we cannot pass this motion. Yet a year ago we could not proceed to consider the sale of ACTEW because we had already done the valuation.

Mr Speaker, those opposite need to be honest enough to concede to the ACT community that it does not matter how this issue is presented - - -

Mr Corbell: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Humphries is suggesting that the Labor Party is being dishonest and I think that is highly disorderly. He should withdraw it.

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