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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 205 ..

Leave granted.

Mr Quinlan: I withdraw my amendment.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (5.41): I move:

Omit all words after "with all figures".

Mr Deputy Speaker, I think that the amendment I have put forward will accommodate the needs of all here today, simply because it will allow us to scrutinise Totalcare, as we should be able to, without exposing Totalcare to the predatory actions of its competitors.

If all the information that Ms Dundas has requested were supplied, it would expose Totalcare's major contracts, such that its competitors would know exactly the pricing structure that it has adopted. I do not think that that would serve any purpose. Removal of the words "for each of the three business segments of Totalcare presented separately"will allow suitable scrutiny of where they are getting their business from and how much it is costing them to provide those services, without actually giving the specific detail that would assist their competitors. I am sure that nobody here would want to create a non-level playing field, to the detriment of Totalcare.

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism and Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming) (5.42): I wish to say a few words now. To a large extent, Mr Smyth's amendment, which we would support if the motion looked like getting up, emasculates the original motion, and it has to be such. What we now have is a motion that will put Totalcare to a considerable amount of work by 1 April and will tell you nothing.

Motion (by Ms Tucker ) negatived:

That the debate be adjourned to a later hour.

MS DUNDAS (5.44): I wish to speak to Mr Smyth's amendment, hopefully to provide some more information about where this debate is going and what we are trying to do today. At the heart of my motion is the idea of trying to get information on how Totalcare is operating in terms of its contracts with ACT government clients and its contracts with non-ACT government clients.

During the discussions today, the Treasurer has said about breaking down the information into the three business segments that one of those segments has one contract and hence providing that information would put Totalcare at a disadvantage in that area because all that information on that one contract would be available. My understanding is that, by accepting Mr Smyth's amendment to my motion, we will just get the global figures, a simple breakdown between ACT government contracts and non-ACT government contracts. Hopefully, that will provide us with at least some information on how Totalcare is operating and whether the figures look balanced.

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