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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (7 August) . . Page.. 2456 ..

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, can the Chief Minister advise whether he has requested that the review that was said by Mr Tonkin to have been undertaken will now be undertaken? Is the Chief Minister confident that the instance admitted by Mr Tonkin is the only misleading information given to the Auditor in the course of the review? Is he aware, for instance, if a further search of public service records has been able to locate the sensitivity matrix and comprehensive comparative analysis of the competing bids for the original redevelopment tender that the Auditor was told were undertaken? Has Mr Tonkin been able to glean any more information regarding the location of the sensitivity matrix and the comprehensive comparative analysis from Mr Gilmour, or is this another example of the Auditor being misled?

MR SPEAKER: There are not many questions there, Chief Minister.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, Mr Speaker. I do not know what further issues Mr Stanhope is referring to. If he believes someone in this process has been misled, he should indicate what he thinks has been misleading and we will deal with that matter very promptly. The standard that I expect of public servants in the ACT government is that they will be prepared to own up to mistakes when they are made and to act appropriately to correct them when they are made. Unfortunately, I cannot rule out to this Assembly or anybody else that they will not be made in the first place, much as I would like to do so, but I do expect that when they are made, as they are from time to time, they are acted on promptly. Mr Speaker, I forget the other part of the question, but the issue-

Mr Stanhope: Will the review be undertaken?

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. No, the review will not be undertaken because it already has been undertaken by the Auditor-General. His ranging over these issues was comprehensive-

Mr Corbell: No, he relied on the public service.

Mr Stanhope: He relied on Mr Tonkin. Look at the report.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I think the issues were comprehensively covered by the Auditor-General. He produced, in case you had forgotten, and I do not think you had, 12 volumes of response to this issue which were tabled in this place.

Mr Quinlan: Still more could have been said, I think.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sure still more will be said, Mr Quinlan. You will make sure of that, I have no doubt. I think it is fair to say that those issues have been properly covered. I do not propose to go back and do what the Auditor-General has already done.

Budget operating loss

MR HIRD: Seeing the opposition has touched on these matters, my question is also to the Chief Minister and Treasurer, Mr Humphries. There appears to be some continued scepticism about the true extent of the debt left to us by the Labor Party when it was in

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