Page 1475 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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my undertaking to report back on further findings. As I advised the Assembly on 19 March, I did table at the first opportunity the error that was drawn to my attention. It was, of course, the first sitting week after receiving correspondence from the chair of the board. And at that time I undertook to investigate issues further. The Chief Minister and I have, indeed, raised a number of questions in relation to the managing director’s remuneration and the process for determining this remuneration. Those issues have been, again, extensively canvassed in the media and, indeed, have been the subject of probably two dozen questions now from the opposition, as you would anticipate.
The new subparagraph (1)(g) is to inform the Assembly that we have called a special general meeting of ACTEW Corporation to raise these issues. New subparagraph (1)(h) is to highlight to the Assembly that the ACT Auditor-General is already proposing to review issues related to ACTEW. I suspect in preparing his motion, the opposition leader may not have checked with the Auditor-General or even looked on the Auditor-General’s website, but I think it is useful that the Assembly notes this. The new subparagraph (1)(i) outlines how the government is dealing with these issues.
Firstly, we will report back to the Assembly on the final costings of the enlarged Cotter Dam after completion. And this, I believe, is entirely consistent with previous resolutions of the Assembly, but we think it is important today to restate that. Secondly, we will be discussing with the board at the special general meeting the issue of the managing director’s remuneration. And I, again, think it is appropriate to report back to the Assembly at our sittings in May.
Thirdly, I think it is worth noting that the opposition leader has, indeed, requested a briefing about two weeks after the issue was first raised, and I am happy to advise the Assembly that, I think subject to Mr Hanson’s diary, this is scheduled to occur on 12 April, later this week. The fourth point is that we certainly will be considering the issues of governance that have been raised by the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission and will be especially interested in the comments in their final report.
The amendment also confirms that the government will, of course, assist, and provide any information requested by, the ACT Auditor-General in her report into governance and administration of water prices. In addition to the individual points that I have raised there, we will, of course, report back to the Assembly regularly in terms of where we are up to with these processes.
The final amendment deletes paragraph (2). In the government’s view, given all of the other processes that are in train, this is premature at this time.
This outlines the government’s approach to addressing the issues. As all members would know, we are, indeed, very concerned by the events of the last couple of weeks around ACTEW and the processes around the administration of the corporation, and we are taking these issues very seriously. But I think it is also important to note that, as shareholders, we have acted appropriately and responsibly. I think it is entirely responsible and appropriate for these actions and these responses to be allowed to run
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