Page 2145 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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MR SPEAKER: Yes, stop the clocks.
Mr Corbell: Yes, thank you, Mr Speaker. Mrs Dunne said that the Chief Minister sent somebody out to lie for her. That is an imputation. It is improper.
Mr Hanson: You’d know, Simon.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Hanson!
Mr Corbell: And Mr Hanson has repeated the sin. They should both be asked to withdraw the comments. They are disorderly. They are an improper imputation on members, and they are out of order.
Mr Hanson: On the point of order, my interjection, “You’d know,” was in regard to the comments about lying and being out of order, given that Mr Corbell called me a liar earlier and was asked to withdraw. That was the reference that I made, not directly to necessarily support what Mrs Dunne said.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Hanson.
Mr Hanson: However, I do not anticipate—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, I will accept your explanation. Mrs Dunne, I invite you to withdraw.
MRS DUNNE: I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you. You are free to continue, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. We also need to turn to the greatest disaster in public works that we have seen with this government—the debacle over the water security projects. We have seen the cost of the Cotter Dam and the Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline—two significant infrastructure projects—blow out considerably. Cotter started at $120 million but is now $363 million, and the Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline, which was estimated at about $45 million in 2005, had blown out by 2009 to $150 million. In just four years we have seen a 220 per cent increase in the cost of these projects.
Where was the Treasurer, one of the shareholders of Actew, during all of this? This Chief Minister as Treasurer and shareholder of Actew Corporation has told us that she regularly gets the minutes of meetings of the board of Actew. We know that the minutes of a number of those meetings record reports and decisions in relation to those infamous cost blow-outs. But what did the Treasurer do when she saw the cost blow-outs being considered by the Actew board? She did nothing. This has been and is an ongoing issue for the Canberra Liberals. The Treasurer knew of these things by her own admission. She said that she read the reports, she read the minutes.
Ms Gallagher: Five ideas?
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