Page 4030 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 16 Sept 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
completely surprised is a surprise to me, and it is a surprise to many of my constituents. It is a surprise to me, because another critical element of the sorry saga is Actew’s development application, lodged with ACTPLA in early July 2009. That application is voluminous and contains many quite detailed design drawings. Many of these drawings are dated late May and early June this year. It is a surprise to me, therefore, that the so-called target out-turn costs were not known in more detail at that time. It is a surprise to me that the Managing Director of Actew would tell the estimates committee on 18 May that the costs could blow out by 30 per cent and then tell the media two weeks later that the costs might be higher by between 50 and 70 per cent. These are major failures for this government, and they are major failures perpetuated on the people of the ACT.
Who is going to take the rap for these failures? No-one. No-one takes the rap for this. The government and the Treasurer blame Actew. Actew blames the ICRC. If that does not work, they will all blame the consultants that were brought in to evaluate the final costs. No doubt, Actew feels that the blame could be justified. These consultants, according to Actew, are the best and second best in the country.
There is more to this story than meets the eye. Today’s motion is just the start of a process that simply must be followed so that the people of Canberra can get to the bottom of what has been a sorry tale from start to finish, and we are not actually finished yet. The infrastructure still has to be built. People have made guarantees that the costs will not increase, but I would not want to hold my breath. Quite frankly, I do not believe that the costs will not increase again.
We will hold the Chief Minister to his undertaking given to the people of Canberra during his radio interview on 3 September when he said:
There are aspects perhaps of communication in relation to this and perhaps in the cost estimates that, on reflection, need a deep review.
This government owes it to the people of Canberra to provide a full accounting of the factors leading to this unprecedented and massive cost blow-out totalling well over a quarter of a billion dollars for one project alone. This government owes it to the people of Canberra to give a full accounting of the history of these projects, including the information flow between the government, its agencies and Actew Corporation. This government owes it to the people of Canberra to demonstrate the cost-benefit analysis for these projects, given the cost blow-out. It owes it to the people of Canberra to show that these projects represent value for money and a viable proposition for them as taxpayers.
In short, this government needs, for once, to be honest with the people of Canberra and provide to the people of Canberra the whole range of documentation so that they can see for themselves how this project has been mismanaged.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.24): I move the following amendment to the motion:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .