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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1340 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Bruce Operations and the International Touring Co to the Stadiums Authority. When my staff made inquiries of the Chief Minister's Office we were referred to the Treasurer's department as the organisation that had responsibility.

We also know, of course, that it was BOPL that entered into the arrangements with the International Touring Co. In response to a freedom of information request that I had made in relation to this issue, to which the government responded that it did not have in its possession a single document, I was referred to BOPL as the organisation that could perhaps provide me with the information that I might be seeking.

Since then, however, the Chief Minister's spokesperson has indicated that in fact it is the Stadiums Authority that is the appropriate agency to provide information about this concert. As I understand it, the act creating the authority was gazetted on 23 March 2000 and I am not quite sure what actions have been taken under that legislation by the government in both prescribing sporting facilities or, indeed, in appointing persons to the authority. So there does appear to be some confusion in the public statements emanating from the government in relation to which agency is responsible today for the provision of information on the rock symphony and other matters going on at the stadium.

There is a whole range of questions that one could ask in relation to the stadium about the reasons for this cancellation and what happened after that, and they have been canvassed. I have to say that I am not sure that satisfactory answers have been given to some of those questions. One of the reasons satisfactory answers have not been given is that the range of information that is available has not been provided and, of course, that in itself begs the question.

There is a genuine public interest in exactly the nature of the arrangements which the ACT government did enter into with the International Touring Co in relation to the rock concert. I certainly was interested in the arrangements, the rationale, the way in which the matter was administered and the responsibilities which we accepted and which conversely the International Touring Company accepted in the contracts that we entered into.

So we come to the nub of the matter. There are documents, there is information that is available, some of it quite straightforward, and I honestly cannot see why the information should, on any reasonable ground, be refused to the Assembly. There are a whole range of matters that quite simply cannot be commercial-in-confidence, or attract other reasonable exceptions or exemptions from publication. It is as a result of that that I have moved, pursuant to the stadiums act, to have the information provided to the Assembly.

As you would be aware, Mr Speaker, under section 24(1) of the Stadiums Authority Act the authority is required to give the Assembly all the information that it requests. This is an absolute provision. There are no ifs, buts or exceptions. The authority must provide the Legislative Assembly with all the information that it requests.

It is interesting to note that under section 24(2) of the Stadiums Authority Act the authority is required to give the minister all the information that he or she requests. Again, there are no ifs, there are no buts, there are no exceptions. The authority must provide the minister with all the information that the minister requests.

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