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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 2865 ..
MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Minister, do you accept the view of the Federal Golf Club that they can, in fact, develop some residential accommodation there without paying betterment tax under their present lease arrangements?
MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I understand that under the current lease, as an ancillary function to the role of the golf course, they do have the right to develop some motel-type accommodation.
MR QUINLAN: My question is to the Chief Minister and relates to the Bruce Stadium audit report. The Chief Minister said on 2CN on Friday last, four days ago:
The final draft has to go to the head of the public service so they have a capacity to respond. My understanding is that hasn't happened. My understanding is he doesn't have it.
I have received advice from the chief executive of the Chief Minister's Department that he was reviewing the proposed report in accordance with section 18(1)(b) of the Auditor-General Act in July and I have discussed the particular task that Mr Tonkin finds himself with informally on more than one occasion; sometimes as a matter of jest, but nevertheless we have exchanged words on it.
I know that volumes of the report are being delivered progressively, so I did a little checking of my own sources and I understand that the last volume was provided to the chief executive of your department some weeks ago. Do you stand by the statements that you made on Friday? How do you reconcile those statements with the fact that the chief executive had advised me, in my position as chair of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, in late July that he was examining proposed reports at that point?
MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I said on Friday that it was my understanding that the chief executive did not have a final draft. It was my understanding that the chief executive did not have a final draft.
Mr Quinlan: At this date?
MS CARNELL: No, you asked me whether what I said on Friday was what I believed to be true. I said, "It is my understanding that the chief executive of my department does not have a final draft."
Mr Stanhope: Did you correct that misleading statement?
MS CARNELL: No, I actually think that that is probably still the case. My understanding is that the Auditor-General was speaking to people as late as last week with regard to possible changes. Whether the Auditor-General has to give an absolute final draft to my chief executive may have been the question that needed to be asked.
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