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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2516 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

As I said earlier, the Assembly is awaiting the report of the Auditor-General on the redevelopment project. It is the committee's view that after the Assembly receives the Auditor's report it should consider whether further action is required with regard to the government's contracting and procurement processes for the Bruce Stadium redevelopment and associated projects.

Mr Speaker, I also referred earlier to the suggestion of the coroner that the committee, as part of its work, inquire into aspects of the contracting and tendering processes involved in the demolition of the old Canberra Hospital. The coroner, in his report, commented on the lack of proper process in some of the arrangements. He said some of the dealings had "all the hallmarks of a sham arrangement". He also referred to the fact that other arrangements were not kept at arms length from the responsible minister, the Chief Minister.

The government responded to this aspect of the coroner's report in two ways. It appointed Mr Tom Sherman to asses its response and to ensure that, where appropriate, the coroner's recommendations where addressed in current practices and procedures. Secondly, Totalcare industries, which was the project director for the demolition, engaged Mr John Harmer to undertake a detailed review of its project management procedures and guidelines. The committee believes that its report deals with what it see as a central theme of Mr Sherman's report: the challenge for public administration to ensure that procedures and guidelines are observed.

In relation to its inquiries into the hospital demolition, the committee feels that it cannot do justice to the coroner's recommendation or to the public interest if it cannot examine the Harmer report and public officials in an open forum and in an accountable fashion. However, the committee accepted the argument of Totalcare that the Harmer report should not be made available without significant restriction, given the existence of current criminal and civil legal actions in relation to the demolition.

The committee believes that it is unable to carry out the review suggested by the coroner without the benefit of being able to examine Mr Harmer's report on its own terms and of being able to undertake inquiries that it feels may be justified and to examine witnesses. The committee has therefore recommended that the Assembly consider referring the investigation of those aspects relating to the hospital demolition suggested by the coroner to the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration or to a re-formed select committee once the Harmer report is made available without restriction.

Mr Speaker, two major themes of the committee's inquiry were the gap the committee perceived between the theory and the practice of the government's contracting and procurement processes and the apparent threat to the publicly espoused values of accountability and fairness posed by devolution and decentralisation of responsibility for government procurement.

The committee acknowledges that there has been a progressive release of guidelines to assist agencies to achieve the government's required procurement outcomes. However, the committee believes the guidelines lack the necessary status and strength to ensure that efficiencies are not achieved at the expense of accountability and fairness. As the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, has observed:

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