Page 4467 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010
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ACTEW Corporation Ltd—2010-11 to 2013-14.
ACTTAB—1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011.
Rhodium Asset Solutions—2010-11, dated July 2010.
I ask leave to make a statement in relation to the papers.
Leave granted.
MS GALLAGHER: In accordance with section 19(3) of the Territory-owned Corporations Act, I hereby present the statements of corporate intent of each territory-owned corporation, namely Rhodium Asset Solutions, Actew Corporation and ACTTAB.
On this occasion I do not intend to elaborate on the Actew and ACTTAB statements of corporate intent. They each have a number of business risks to be dealt with by their respective boards, and the statements of intent reflect those risks and the boards’ responses to them.
However, since this will be the final statement of corporate intent for Rhodium as the wind-down of the company’s business activity is nearing completion, I would like to take this opportunity to inform members of the progress of that winding down, and to provide some context around the situation with Rhodium.
It is reasonable to ask why Rhodium was established in the first place. When the Labor government came into office in 2001, Rhodium’s fleet management and leasing business was operating from within Totalcare. As a consequence of a major restructure in 1997, Totalcare had become a significant financial liability, costing taxpayers many millions of dollars. After conducting a review of Totalcare’s operations, the government decided in 2003 to transfer the various business activities into government departments and then proceed to wind up the company.
For legal and tax reasons, a departmental structure was not compatible with certain leases that Totalcare’s fleet business already had in place with thousands of individual customers. Rather than burden the fleet business with the task of tackling Totalcare’s considerable liabilities, the government decided to establish a new territory-owned corporation.
As an aside, I note here that even to this day we are still not in a position to deregister Totalcare as we continue to grapple with resolving the substantial outstanding superannuation liabilities. Rhodium Asset Solutions was subsequently formed to take over Totalcare’s fleet business and commenced operations on 1 January 2005. The intention was to allow Rhodium to continue to operate the government’s fleet management contract and pursue business opportunities without further cost to the taxpayer.
Over many years the impression had been created that Totalcare’s fleet business was a highly successful and profitable business. However, much to the government’s dismay, this perception was found to be far from reality. Contrary to the advice
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