Page 333 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the Chief Minister advise the Assembly what actions will be taken to ensure that ActewAGL cannot be seen to be treated as a government agency when making an application to develop a project and that due process is particularly and rigorously followed?
MR STANHOPE: In response to the specific question, of course, ActewAGL is a private company, and the ACT government has no capacity to ensure that ActewAGL act in any particular way.
Mr Seselja: That’s not what she asked.
MR STANHOPE: No, the question was about ActewAGL.
Mr Seselja: About whether they are treated as a government agency.
MR STANHOPE: The question was quite specific. I don’t know whether the question was meant to be about Actew, but in relation to whether it was Actew or ActewAGL, the answer is the same. ActewAGL is a private company over which the ACT government has no capacity to direct, and even if the question related to Actew, the ACT government are shareholders, or the Chief Minister and the Treasurer are shareholders, of Actew, but Actew is a company. So the steps that the government will take to ensure that Actew behaves in a certain way need to be understood in the context of the Corporations Law.
Mrs Dunne: No, that’s not what you were asked.
MR STANHOPE: I beg your pardon, Mr Speaker. Could you ask the member to repeat the question?
MR SPEAKER: Ms Bresnan, can you repeat the question?
MS BRESNAN: Certainly, Mr Speaker. Can the Chief Minister advise the Assembly what actions will be taken to ensure that ActewAGL cannot be seen to be treated as a government agency when making an application to develop a project and that due process is rigorously followed?
MR SPEAKER: Chief Minister, is that clear now?
MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, I don’t know of a single ACT government official or minister that doesn’t know that ActewAGL is a private company.
Gas-fired power station and data centre
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, on ABC local radio 666 this morning you stated that some of the findings of the Auditor-General concerning the data centre and gas-fired power station project were wrongheaded. I think you used that word again today in question time. In December 2006 you described the findings of Coroner Doogan into the bushfire as wrong and offensive. Chief Minister, why do you find it hard to accept the findings of independent authorities such as the coroner and the Auditor-General when they criticise you or your government?
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