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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Thursday, 19 August 2004) . . Page.. 3928 ..

… in the last 24 hours I’ve been unable to come across anyone in the building industry who can verify any of the claims that have been made and we do do our best on this program to try and get the best possible information we can.

He went on to say:

In fact, I would have to say the calls I have put out so far have turned up the opposite from people involved in the tendering process from the government side now, are actually doing a better job than they were perceived to be doing a couple of years ago.

He also said:

… in the government’s defence … there were some claims made yesterday about the Ministers limited knowledge about things. The whistleblowers legislation is designed to stop Ministers from finding out about the details of the case and an independent investigator is appointed. So it’s not unreasonable for a Minister to say, I genuinely don’t know what’s going on, because if they did, they would be in breach of the Act.

He had David Dawes on following 8.30 am and David Dawes also commented on how well the Procurement Solutions process works and how they are satisfied with the regime that is in place.

Also, in the Australian article, Graham Shaw of GE Shaw and Associates was named as a person who had suffered at the hands of work being given out to Totalcare. Graham Shaw had a conversation with my office today and he was very unhappy with the comments that had been put in the Australian. He mentioned that he had had a chat with Jacqui Burke last week. He is happy to be quoted as saying that he is happy with the procurement regime which operates in the ACT and that he has no fault with Procurement Solutions, an agency that is noted for its professionalism, is well run and is above board in its conduct and behaviour towards tenderers.

GE Shaw has competed with Totalcare in a competitive environment and has won some and has lost some, but he knows of no evidence that Totalcare has benefited from any favouritism in the bidding process. Graham Shaw also knows of no allegations of preferential treatment of Totalcare by the government. He informed my office that he was unimpressed by the overture made by Jacqui Burke and is now very angry about the imputations alleged in the media, particularly in the Australian article of 19 August 2004.

Mr Stanhope: I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.

Paper

Mr Quinlan presented the following paper:

ACT Government Ministerial Delegation to USA and Canada—3 June to 16 June 2004—Report.

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