Page 1559 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, members. Let us just hear from the minister. Let him get more than three words out.
MR BARR: Thank you. The Leader of the Opposition issued a press release in relation to a report on electricity pricing from Carbon Market Economics—CME. That press release indicated that I had made an incorrect statement. I have checked the information and have sought clarification from Carbon Market Economics themselves in relation to their report.
Mr Speaker, I am advised that they have made an error in one section of their report where they transposed the ACT and the Northern Territory’s rankings. They have apologised to the ACT government for this error and confirmed that the figures in 3.3 on page 11 of the report are, indeed, correct.
Mr Seselja: So what the report says was wrong? So you are going to ignore that bit?
MR BARR: No, the report is right. You did not read the detail. You issued a press release—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Barr has the floor, and he is making a clarification.
MR BARR: Mr Seselja—maybe not himself, but his office—did not read the entire report and went on a sentence in there that contained a typo. We read the entire report and checked with the organisation that released it. They have apologised for the error and acknowledged that, yes, the ACT is the cheapest of all states and territories. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to apologise and withdraw his misleading press release.
University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology
Statement by minister
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Corrections), by leave: I thank members of the Assembly for giving me leave to speak on this. Mr Speaker, yesterday during the debate on Ms Hunter’s motion on UC and CIT I said that Professor Bradley’s report advised that the status quo was not an option for CIT and UC as both will need to change and develop to reflect reforms in tertiary education nationally and in the globally competitive market.
When I reread Professor Bradley’s report this morning, I noticed that what she said was:
The status quo is always an option … However, this is not a preferred option. While UC may be able to manage if no structural changes occur, CIT will suffer without structural changes.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video