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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2503 ..
MR QUINLAN (continuing):
venture. Now, that leaves this Assembly with a problem at some future time. I am sure this government intended to come to us with a proposition that, quite obviously, this new joint venture had to be restructured. It had to undergo a capital restructure because it had to meet industry norms or had to reach regulator benchmarks that they use in terms of debt equity structures. But now each partner is on their own in terms of what they borrow against their asset, a share in the partnership. I look forward, Mr Speaker, to the gymnastics that could follow when and if this government persists in its original plan to sell ACTEW, a plan that they had before they went to the last election.
I will conclude, Mr Speaker, by saying we have entered a deal that does reduce the exposure of ACTEW in the electricity retail market. It does, at the same time, bring with it exposure to risk in the natural gas market. I think in the overall context, in terms of retail, we are subject to less risk than we were before, but we have paid more than we needed to do to achieve that. I think the government's bloody-minded persistence in wanting to sell part of ACTEW-a decision they had taken before the last election, but denied it-has been borne out in this process, and in fact the government has given us a less than desirable result, a less than optimum result, because of that blind determination which turns out to be totally unnecessary.
MR BERRY (11.10): Mr Speaker, this deal is the culmination of a period of deceit and betrayal of the Canberra electorate. Before the last election I recall Kate Carnell being asked what her views were on the future of ACTEW, particularly in relation to the sale of it. She was emphatic: "It is not on the agenda." Well, Mr Speaker, to use a contemporary pun, I have to say she did not let the grass grow under her feet for long. She went straight out into the marketplace, trying to sell the territory's major asset. Straightaway, she was out there trying to sell the territory's major asset.
Mr Speaker, this will join all of those others on Mrs Carnell's CV-the Kingston/Acton land swap and all the massive costs that go with that, the tragic hospital implosion that ended up-
MR SPEAKER: Relevance, Mr Berry, relevance.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, this is about management style.
Ms Carnell: No, it's not.
MR SPEAKER: It's about ACTEW/AGL.
MR BERRY: The futsal slab, the Floriade fee, the Hall/Kinlyside deal, the Feel the Power campaign, and, of course, Bruce Stadium. We could not possibly leave out Bruce Stadium. What a CV.
MR SPEAKER: We could if we were discussing the AGL/ACTEW merger.
MR BERRY
: What a great CV, Mr Speaker. Why is it that people did not have the courage to go to the electorate with a promise to do something with ACTEW? Because they knew that the community just wouldn't cop it. That's why. Mr Speaker, I heard Mr Moore say in an interjection a moment or so ago that we should have sold it. That was highly disorderly, of course, and I should not take notice of it. If Mr Moore had said
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