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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3587 ..
MR OSBORNE (continuing):
private conversations to me, about how Labor will conduct the campaign, and I would hope that the Liberal Party will do the same.
MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (5.49): Following Mr Hargreaves' display of tetchiness and insults to paperboys and shop assistants, I thought I would come down to the chamber and read onto the record what I said in my press release. I notice that they do not wish to talk about the issues but rather go on the attack. The press release simply said:
The man who signed the VITAB betting deal, which nearly destroyed ACTTAB and ended up costing taxpayers more than $5 million, has actually been pre-selected by the Labor Party as a candidate for the next ACT election.
Mr Athol Williams, the former Chairperson of the board of ACTTAB, won Labor Party pre-selection for the electorate of Brindabella last weekend.
Mr Williams who was part of the only board in the history of self-government to be sacked, was given the option of resigning or being terminated by the former ALP Government itself in June 1994.
Deputy Chief Minister Brendan Smyth said today that he was astounded that the Labor Party believed that Mr Williams was a suitable candidate to become a minister should the ALP win the next election.
Mr Smyth said the VITAB deal had been described in 1997 by an independent investigation as a "fraudulent scheme," and that the former board of ACTTAB, chaired by Mr Williams, had been "inept." (Burbidge Report... paragraph 308)
The original deal, signed by Mr Williams, was described by the former Labor Sports Minister Wayne Berry as "money for jam."
Mr Smyth said that the former Labor Government had been forced to pay out $3.3 million to settle a court case with VITAB after it broke its contractual relationship with the Vanuatu-based betting agency.
"On top of this we must add the cost of two inquiries and legal expenses, which bring the total loss to taxpayers to well over $5 million. The only money for jam here went to the principals of VITAB, not Canberra taxpayers."
Mr Smyth said that former Labor Sports Minister David Lamont had been forced to use a legislative instrument to remove the board of which Mr Williams was the Chair.
"Under the laws governing ACTTAB at the time, Mr Lamont could have only dismissed any member of the board chaired by Mr Williams for one of two reasons, and that was either misbehaviour or incapacity.
"So here we have a situation where a Labor Minister decides he has no option in the wake of the VITAB scandal but to get rid of the ACTTAB board by either seeking their resignations or dismissing them for misbehaviour or incapacity. Yet the chair of that board is now deemed worthy of becoming an MLA and possibly a Labor Minister under Mr Stanhope.
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