Page 3987 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 15 Sept 2009
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concerns here. How is this project being managed? Why is it blowing out? Why is it blowing out so much?”
Ms Gallagher: I answered all that. Yes, we did.
MR SESELJA: Sorry?
Ms Gallagher: We did. We raised all those questions.
MR SESELJA: It is a good question because the Chief Minister claimed to be in the dark. As reported in the Canberra Times on 4 September:
The ACT Government was kept in the dark about the ballooning price of the Cotter Dam expansion, much to its surprise and disappointment, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said yesterday.
I am not sure whether that was a misquote or a paraphrase that was incorrect. Have we seen the clarification? Have we seen the clarification from the Chief Minister, him coming out and saying no, actually he was not kept in the dark. Actually he was not kept in the dark; he knew exactly what was going on. There are only two ways this can go: either they were asking the questions and they were informed or they were kept in the dark. If they were kept in the dark, the question is: why? Was it not reflected in the minutes? These are serious questions that the Chief Minister needs to answer in relation to his oversight and his role as a shareholder on behalf of the people of the ACT.
We need to ask the question: why do we have ministers as shareholders? What is the purpose of having ministers as shareholders? I would put it to the Assembly that we have ministers as shareholders to protect the public interest, to represent the territory, to protect the public purse, to make sure that the actions of Actew and other agencies, other territory-owned corporations, are in the public interest, that they are being conducted in an efficient and effective manner to ensure the people of the ACT get value for money. Where were those questions?
There are serious questions now and, it would appear, some contradictions, even from that report versus Ms Gallagher’s answers in question time today, that they were getting regular updates; they were getting updates in the minutes. Was this included in the minutes? I would be happy to give Ms Gallagher leave to speak again to tell us, when the minutes actually raised concerns, what was in the minutes. Or was she as surprised and shocked as Mr Stanhope, who claims in this report to have been kept in the dark about the ballooning price of the Cotter Dam? This is the question that this government needs to answer.
Of course, in relation to Actew, last year we had a massive advertising campaign to tell us just how good things were going in relation to water. We were told that things were going swimmingly in relation to water, that things were fantastic. In fact, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to give us this message. Then we get to a situation where, firstly, it blows out to $246 million, just after estimates I think, and then, a couple of months later, we hear that it blows out to $363 million.
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