Page 1891 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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ActewAGL’s representative, CB Richard Ellis, stated that block 1610 was to be used for only one of the two power stations, that is, there was to be another one somewhere else. Your document, Chief Minister! I will read it:
A site in Hume has been selected for one of the two new stations proposed by ActewAGL
Your documents, Chief Minister; your ignorance; your smug attack on the Leader of the Opposition! You cannot come in here in good conscience and lay the documents on the table that would clear your name. Bring them in and put them on the table; table the letter from John Mackay that you assume everybody has got; table the documents that supposedly the Deputy Chief Minister has seen. “If you read these documents you will know there is not a shred of evidence that implicates the government in this mess.” Yet those documents are not tabled.
The Chief Minister asked, “Where is the failure? Where is the lack of process? What went wrong?” It goes wrong when the Chief Minister makes a decision—and decisions are made in his department before the much-vaunted process has even commenced to run—in planning the approval. And how do we know this? Again, from the Chief Minister’s documents, from some of the papers that have been released to the opposition. I quote:
Please turn your issues brief into a short brief from the CEO—
of the LDA—
to Deputy CEO CMD to appraise Mr Dawes of the twin issues i.e the threat to ACTEW initiative and industrial land supply. Whereas ACTEW will probably prefer their default option of returning to Block 7 Section 21 Hume the implications of this for industrial land supply which Mr Dawes emphasised was a priority for Government—
profits over people—
must be taken into account in reaching a final decision.
And it goes on. Then we have another document, a handwritten document, a handwritten note from the head of the Land Development Agency, that says:
CMD have already agreed a site.
No process.
CMD have already agreed a site.
We have heard of the proponents from here to there, from hither to yon, up and down dale, at crossroads, behind roads, behind tents, over hills, but CMD made the decision. And who informs them of this decision? Did ActewAGL ever actually get a look at buying block 7 of 21 Hume? No, they did not. There is a note to the Chief Minister, in a brief with the letters to Mr Mackay attached but never released and not seen by the opposition. I read the paragraph that says:
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