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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3540 ..

Totalcare Industries Limited (including its assets, rights and liabilities) to a Territory owned corporation to be established under the Act.

Mr Deputy Speaker, members may recall that on 27 November 2003 this Assembly agreed to dispose of all business undertakings of Totalcare Industries Ltd to the territory. I am pleased to report that all the major business undertakings, with the exception of the fleet business, have since been successfully transferred back to ACT agencies. The roads, facility management, linen and corporate components of Totalcare’s business undertakings have been transferred to the Department of Urban Services. The sterilising services business has been transferred to ACT Health.

The government has subsequently received legal advice that transferring the fleet business to the territory is not sustainable. This is because the departmental structure cannot support novated leasing arrangements as two of the three parties—namely, the lessor and the employer—would be the same, that is, the territory. Under the circumstances, the Totalcare board has recommended that the fleet business be transferred to a new territory-owned corporation rather than continuing to operate from within Totalcare. This will ensure that the fleet business can operate with a clean slate and avoid the new board being embroiled in a range of residual issues that still need to be resolved within Totalcare.

At a later stage, when all the residual issues have been addressed, it would be the government’s intention to seek to deregister Totalcare under the Corporations Act. The government has accepted the Totalcare board’s advice as to the best way forward, but the wording of the original resolution agreed to by the Assembly on 27 November 2003 does not provide for the fleet business to be transferred to a new territory-owned corporation. I therefore commend to members of this Assembly a revised resolution under section 16 (4) of the Territory Owned Corporations Act 1990 seeking agreement to dispose of the fleet business undertakings of Totalcare to a new territory-owned corporation.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (4.34): Mr Deputy Speaker, based on what the Treasurer has said, this seems to be a reasonable enough position to adopt. But it does raise some questions about the whole reincorporation of Totalcare into the department. Perhaps this legal advice should have been sought before they acted so quickly. But, that being said—

Mr Quinlan: This government does act quickly. Thank you for that.

MR SMYTH: The Deputy Chief Minister says that the government does act quickly. Apparently they acted quickly and they got it wrong. On the single occasion that they acted quickly, they in fact acted hastily and are now coming back to this Assembly to correct their mistake. That aside, it seems a reasonable thing to do. Certainly, these leases should not be put at risk and the fleet business should be operating as it should. It seems a reasonable process to set it up as a territory-owned corporation.

I note that the Treasurer has said that there are still residual issues. Clearly, one of those residual issues is the total cost of the reincorporation of Totalcare. Perhaps when Mr Quinlan closes on this motion, he might like to update us as to where the bill for the reincorporation stands at this time.

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