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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 3358 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: The fact is that TransACT has been a matter of enormous concern and attention from this government and from the Actew board over the last three or four months. To suggest that in some way this is a bad investment for the ACT is utterly reprehensible.

Mr Stanhope talks about how we should apply knowledge nation in the ACT. You do not have a knowledge nation-or a knowledge territory, if you like-if you do not invest in something like TransACT. You cannot talk it down during an election campaign and then wonder why the thing is not worth very much after that campaign is over, Mr Stanhope.

Mr Stanhope: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Chief Minister is not answering the question. The question went to the basis on which the Chief Minister made decisions as a shareholder in relation to an investment of significant amounts of public money in TransACT. His answer is not relevant. He should answer the question. The question was about his capacity, his competence and the basis on which his government chose to invest significant additional moneys in TransACT.

MR SPEAKER: The Chief Minister is answering the question as he sees fit. We all know that ministers answer questions in that way.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Quinlan's question suggested that Actew had invested to a disproportionately high extent in TransACT and did not have a shareholding to reflect its investment. That is not my impression of what Actew has done. As I said, I will be making a statement after question time which will explain the position of TransACT and explain why I think this territory has an asset of great value and should be proud of what has been achieved by TransACT to date.

It is a sign of the desperation of those people opposite that they are prepared to try to win votes in this election campaign at the expense of the territory's investment and the investment of all the people of this territory in TransACT.

Crime rates

MR HIRD: It is a shame those opposite do not look at standing order 117. They would know what damage they are doing to TransACT.

My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Mr Smyth. I refer to the 12 per cent fall in reported crimes across all fences within the territory and the recent debate. Mr Hargreaves stated that, if these results are true ones, then this is a fantastic result. Mr Quinlan claimed that such a reduction was statistically inevitable. Can the minister assure the parliament of the reliability of the ACT crime statistics?

MR SMYTH: I thank Mr Hird for his question because it is an important one. It goes to the trust that we as citizens all have in our local police force. I can assure members that the police statistics that I advised them of earlier this year are an accurate record of the crime trends in the ACT in the year 2000-01 and that they reflect the number of crimes reported by the ACT community.

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