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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (6 June) . . Page.. 2019 ..

MR SPEAKER: No. You have just put your argument. You just said-

Mr Humphries: I was halfway through it, and you interrupted me.

MR SPEAKER: You have put your argument. You said there appears to be a conflict of interest. Well, the imputation is clear to me.

Mr Humphries: I am glad to hear it, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: That is good. In future, you will not ask silly questions like that!

Gungahlin-broadband services

MRS CROSS: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Quinlan regarding TransACT. Mr Quinlan, as indicated last week at a meeting in Gungahlin, and in the media, there is no realistic possibility of true broadband service delivery to families and businesses in Gungahlin, other than those which can be provided by TransACT. This is an obvious concern to many residents, especially those with small businesses, or those who work from home.

The federal government has provided incentives to Telstra to provide additional services, including broadband, to regional areas. Has the ACT government been approached by TransACT for an offer of assistance, or considered offering a similar style of assistance and, if so, what was your response?

MR QUINLAN: I will have to check if there is any connection between any application TransACT might have made for business incentives versus trying to reach regional Canberra with broadband services. I do not know that there was, in any way, a digital link between service to Gungahlin and a request TransACT might have made for business incentive assistance. Effectively, most of the import of your question I think you have asked before, or was asked before.

Mrs Cross: No, I have not asked this question before.

MR QUINLAN: It does not matter-I am happy to go over it again. I am not going to be pernickety about it.

The point I tried to make previously, in this place, is that the ACT is a minority shareholder in TransACT. TransACT suffered some cash, or capital, problems. That made it into the media, so I am not divulging any of their business secrets. They changed their management, they changed their CEO, they swept out a lot of the next layer of management-there were some prominent people involved-and got down to real business. To my knowledge-I have not been through it chapter and verse-they set out a business plan. That business plan stages their development, and is laced with the art of the financial-the commonsense possible. That seems to now be working, and they seem to now be in a position where they can look forward to becoming cash positive in a reasonable period of time.

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