Page 1003 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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(b) a revised estimated total budget for the Dam within five working days after the revised budget is known and approved by the ACTEW Board;
(c) a revised schedule for the Dam’s construction within five working days after the revised schedule is known and approved by the ACTEW Board;
(d) any further revised estimated total budgets or schedules for construction within five working days after they are approved by the ACTEW Board; and
(e) if the Assembly is not sitting when the shareholders of ACTEW Corporation are required to provide documents under (2)(b), (c) or (d), the Speaker is authorised to receive and distribute the documents.”.
The amendment put forward by Mr Barr is unacceptable to the Canberra Liberals because it fails in so many ways. As Mr Seselja said, Mr Barr’s defence is rather weak. He is sort of saying, “It is very difficult to ask us to do these things and it is unreasonable to ask us to report regularly.” It is not unreasonable. The people of the ACT pay your wages. The people of the ACT are going to be confronted with a huge bill as a result of this. We know this because Mr Barr has said that so far they have expended $315.7 million on the project. But the really kicker piece of information which the people of the ACT need to know is, before the rain event, what Actew estimated the dam construction would be.
I have been briefed. My staff and I attended a briefing last week. It was a lengthy briefing. It was given in a very generous spirit. I was told that at the moment there is no budget. As a result of the rain event, we do not know. There is no budget. We do not know what it will cost. We do not know what the dam will cost. We know, and I was told, that it will be in excess of $363 million. I was also told that in preparation for the board meeting in late February or early March—I think Mr Barr used the date of 4 March—work had been done and finalised on what they thought the dam project would cost. That had been literally blown out of the water by the rain on 1 March and subsequent days. We know that Actew had done the work to estimate what they thought the dam would cost prior to the rain.
The first part of my amendment calls on the government to divulge that figure and calls on the government to divulge that figure today. If they do not know, they should know. I know, because I have asked the question, that the work has been done. I asked the question: how much is it? I was told, “I cannot tell you because the shareholders have not been briefed.” The shareholders should be briefed and they should be able to tell the people of the ACT what that figure was. We know that it is in excess of $363 million. The managing director of Actew told me that last week.
After that there was the rain event. We know that that is going to have substantial impacts in time delays. The time delays will be substantial. From the briefing that I received, it may be three months before they can actually start to pour concrete again. There are costs associated with that. There are costs associated with the clean-up. Some of that will be covered by insurance. Those are all the sorts of things that this government should be telling this Assembly and the people of the ACT. My
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