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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (30 March) . . Page.. 1192 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

There is also an uncosted and vague commitment that the Government of the ACT will work with Impulse Airlines to develop a cooperative program to stimulate the development of tourist and convention travel in the ACT. We are interested to know what this cooperative commitment will be. What will be the cost to the ACT taxpayers? Exactly what are we going to contribute to this joint venture of marketing and tourism? It is interesting to compare that language with the language that applies to the part of the Government's obligations under this statement of intent. The language is much stronger for the Government. It says:

So we have the statement that it will, the amount and the time, not "support", "investigate" or "endeavour". The wording is pretty strong there, although I have noticed that the Chief Minister has moved away from one aspect of this statement in that she is not asking us for approval today; she is just asking us to note the motion. That is why I call it a very uneven document in terms of how much Impulse is being tied down compared with the ACT Government. I do understand that it is not a legally binding document, but it is interesting to compare the language and see how it is really loose for Impulse.

Another interesting thing about that statement of intent is the support for the ACT's financial commitment. The statement of intent reads:

Everyone is interested in knowing about how this loan is being set up. If the business does well, it will be a gift, flowing mainly to the airport, it seems. If the business does not do well, who will be carrying the risk here and what guarantee do we have that the equity will be in place? That question has been partially answered today, but not nearly fully enough. We believe there has to be considerable work done to clarify the detail of this statement of intent before the Government enters into a legally binding contract.

I am also concerned that there has been no assessment of the appropriate level of financial assistance that should be offered to Impulse. The Chief Minister admitted in question time on Tuesday that they are giving Impulse $8m because that is what they asked for. I should have thought that the Government would be more careful about giving away taxpayers' money, particularly compared with other areas of government expenditure. Would it not be great if the Government gave welfare groups money that easily?

It worries me also that the Government's assessment of the impacts of this proposal is totally focused on the economic impacts, that is, how much extra money will flow through the ACT. There has been no attempt to look at the environmental or social impacts of this proposal, apart from the employment situation, which is important but which has to be looked at in a broader way. I find it disappointing that the Government,

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