Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3639 ..

MR QUINLAN: What is "rollout"? I have said "total capital cost". I have talked about total capital cost. Do we have to enter into semantics as to "rollout"? I am talking about capital cost. Rollout is a part. I am looking at the whole cost.

Mr Humphries: You asked me about rollout earlier and last week. It was about rollout, not-

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! Mr Quinlan has the floor.

MR QUINLAN: I think the Chief Minister is dissembling in his typical fashion. Here it is in black and white-the total capital cost.

Mr Humphries: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I ask that that be withdrawn.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Quinlan, address your remarks to the chair.

MR QUINLAN: "Attempting to confuse the issue"-is that all right? I know it is offensive but it might be accurate.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Quinlan, come to order. Address your remarks to the chair.

MR QUINLAN: The clear point that needs to be made, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is that I asked, "What is the total capital cost?" The response was $233 million. If somebody by sheer accident used the term "rollout" rather than "total capital cost" and Mr Humphries then said, "I know that that is a subset of the total cost that happens to be $200 million and I would like to check that," then quite obviously you would have known when you got the question, Mr Humphries, that you were being asked, "What is TransACT going to cost, and what money needs to be raised?"

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Quinlan, do not encourage debate across the chamber.

MR QUINLAN: It does not matter. It does not exist. It was not rollout; it was some nonsense. I think the point has been made.

MR HUMPHRIES (Chief Minister, Minister for Community Affairs and Treasurer): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I need to clarify this matter. It is a fairly serious assertion. I seek leave to make a statement.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: We appear to be now quoting fairly freely from the draft Hansard, so I will do so as well. The comments that were made about TransACT in the hearing on 27 July relate to the total capital cost of the TransACT venture. I refer to page 8 of the transcript. In the preceding seven pages, the word "rollout" is used only once, on page 5, almost as an aside, by Mr Perkins. The rest of the discussion is quite specifically about total capital cost. I quote from the previous page:

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .