Page 4922 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009

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(l) other matters the committee considers relevant to the inquiry;

(2) the committee be comprised of:

(a) one Member to be nominated by the Government;

(b) one Member to be nominated by the Opposition; and

to be notified in writing to the Speaker within 24 hours of the passage of this motion;

(3) the Member nominated by the Opposition be the committee chair;

(4) the committee report by the end of April 2010;

(5) if the Assembly is not sitting when the committee has completed its inquiry, the committee may send its report to the Speaker or, in the absence of the Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker, who is authorised to give directions for its printing, publishing and circulation;

(6) the foregoing provisions of this resolution so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders; and

(7) the committee conduct the inquiry as it sees fit, including but not limited to, calling witnesses, requesting or requiring documents and seeking relevant expert advice, support or assistance.

I am moving this motion today for a number of important reasons. First and foremost, what we have seen to date in relation to Cotter Dam has been the largest cost blow-out in the territory’s history, a cost blow-out of around a quarter of a billion dollars—$243 million and counting—$243 million before a sod has even been turned.

We believe that the best way to get to the bottom of why this occurred is through a full, broad-ranging, open, transparent Assembly inquiry. This is something that we believe the Assembly simply cannot outsource. That accountability, accountability of territory-owned corporations, accountability of ministers, scrutiny of these processes, cannot be outsourced. We from time to time, of course, call in assistance, but in the end it is up to the Assembly, not other bodies, to inquire into these matters.

It is worth going through how we have got to the process or the position we are in today. First, it is worth reflecting on the numbers: $243 million. I think we have become somewhat immune now to these large numbers when we hear about government projects. We hear about the billions and the trillions nationally and internationally in terms of stimulus, in terms of budget blow-outs, in terms of all sorts of issues. But we need to put it into context: $243 million in the context of a territory of 345,000 people, in the context of a territory budget, even though this is off budget, that sits at about the $3½ billion mark. So we are not talking about a small amount of

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