Page 3622 - Week 08 - Friday, 24 August 2012
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I commend Actew for these important changes and encourage them to continue their efforts to manage the territory’s water resources more sustainably.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (3.50): There is no doubt that Actew will have a full agenda in the 2012-13 fiscal year. In addition to the completion of the enlarged Cotter Dam, the partnership with the Bulk Water Alliance project that will provide water security for the territory for decades to come, there are a number of other water security projects, such as the Murrumbidgee to Googong transfer pipeline, which has in fact, I understand, been commissioned today. It is worth acknowledging that these projects have come in under budget and so will provide savings back to Actew.
There is, as speakers have observed, the return into the Actew fold of the water and sewerage asset business, transferred back from ActewAGL, who were managing those assets on contract. The efficiencies made from this return should provide for a more efficient organisation overall, through economies of scale and expertise in asset management.
Under the watchful eye of the shareholders who represent the interests of territory citizens, Actew will continue the work of providing water and sewerage services and, with ActewAGL, energy services to the Canberra community. I thank members for their support of this appropriation line and commend it to the Assembly.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.20—Canberra Institute of Technology $69,592,000 (net cost of outputs) and $4,843,000 (capital injection), totalling $74,435,000.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (3.52): The Canberra Institute of Technology, as Canberra’s premium provider of vocational education in the ACT, has an enviable history of achievement. There are many successful businesses that owe their start in life to the excellent training their owners and staff received through the CIT, and there is much to be proud of in the courses they have provided and the students that have graduated from the CIT.
But the last 12 months have not been the best of times for this institution. We first had the very careless, totally fiscally irresponsible effort by the Labor government to engineer a takeover or shutdown of CIT, wrapped in such warm words as “collaborations”, “mergers” and so on. I think Mr Barr even called it a marriage. Well, like many marriages, it had a stormy ride, and the wedding was off before anything was signed, but only after much scrutiny in this place and much agitation by staff, students and the general public. In the interim, it did a lot of damage. It brought into question staff and course security, and it impacted on current and future students at the University of Canberra and the CIT.
It also deflected efforts and attention by CIT administrators to increase the institution’s revenue base. One of the CIT’s priorities in 2012-13 was to expand and
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