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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (10 May) . . Page.. 1388 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

expenditure of $10 million of hard-earned ratepayers' money. Of course we do not want to wash our $10 million down the drain. You have done the deal. You have signed on the doted line. You have committed us.

Ms Carnell: Yep.

MR STANHOPE: The money has been spent, so of course we want it to succeed. Of course we do. That does not mean that there are not some legitimate questions that might be asked about the process and there might not be some legitimate questions asked about the spin that the government is putting on the process and the verballing that is being done, particularly in the press release, Chief Minister, that you released the day after the last debate.

I will refer to a couple of statements that I made in the debate which indicate the extent to which you took my contribution to the debate and the Labor Party's position for granted. I will quote what I said last time when talking about the amount of government support, if any, that should be given. After saying what a great potential boon to the ACT economy the Impulse deal would be, I acknowledged the tremendous potential for jobs growth. I acknowledged the tremendous potential for the economic strengthening of the local economy. I acknowledged all those things. I acknowledged that over the years the Labor Party has supported the development of a transport hub. I acknowledged my great support for Terry Snow and the airport group, their vision for Canberra and the sterling work they do in selling that vision. I acknowledged all those things and I stand by them.

In the context of that debate we did not have available to us, as members of this Assembly, all of the information that we required to make an informed decision about whether or not the $10 million-

Ms Carnell: Which is the reason I did not ask you to.

MR STANHOPE: Well, I respect that, Chief Minister. At the end of the day you say, "Well, we didn't ask you to make the decision; we were simply asking you to note," and that is what we did. We noted that you were involved in a process, but that is not what your press release of the next day said. The next day you said how pleased you were to receive the unanimous support of the Assembly.

Ms Carnell: Because you supported it. You got up there and you said, "I think this is a great deal."

MR STANHOPE: No, I noted it. We noted it. I will tell you now what I said, Chief Minister. I will read to you what I said:

I went on to say:

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