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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 3044 ..

Advice has now come from not one but two legal sources. When is Mr Berry going to concede that he has got it wrong? Mr Berry claims that this is another Bruce Stadium. In future, when the Labor Party tries to beat up issues, I will claim this is another Williamsdale quarry-that is, a wild and baseless accusation against government officials in the hope of making electoral gain.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Why then did the Chief Minister not comply with the section 16 (2) of the Territory Owned Corporations Act, which states:

A consent may be given-

Mr Moore: That is a legal opinion.

MR BERRY: I am not asking for a legal opinion. I have already got one for free. The subsection states:

A consent may be given subject to a condition and, where it is so given, the territory owned corporation or subsidiary shall not carry out the activity that the consent refers to until the condition is satisfied.

Namely, that the joint venture should be between Totalcare and Mitchell Mini-Mix and possibly CSR.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, once again Mr Berry is alleging that the law has been broken.

Mr Berry: I am asking you why you did not comply with that provision.

MR HUMPHRIES: You are saying, "Why haven't you stopped beating your wife?" You are implying that the law has been broken. The fact is that it has not. You had better stop making the allegation because it is not true. The legal advice says that it is not true. You are not prepared to acknowledge that fact.

Mr Speaker, this is Mr Berry all over. Backed into a corner, he keeps insisting that black is white and telling people to go away and stop asking him the question. Mr Berry, continuing to assert it does not make black, white. You have alleged the law was broken. I have produced the evidence, not once but twice, that it was not broken and you will not admit that.

What kind of minister is Mr Berry going to make if he has not got the integrity to acknowledge when he is wrong? Isn't this the very attitude and the very same approach that led this territory into the VITAB mess six or seven years ago? That is the very same reason that this territory lost $5 million over the VITAB affair. The community was treated to an unedifying spectacle of Mr Berry denying and blaming other people. By the way, he very much blamed public servants during the VITAB affair. It was they who had made the mistakes, not him.

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