Mr STIRLING - 1998-02-17
When I asked questions on 17 June last year about cuts to the Power and Water Authority's budget, the minister then responsible for PAWA stated:
Savings were made by essential travel only being undertaken and by ensuring that all expenditure was absolutely
essential. It resulted in a process that has enabled the services and the operations of PAWA to continue. The
service provided to the community has not deteriorated at all.
Is it not a fact that the 2% cut did affect maintenance programs and the purchase of replacement and spare parts, and did create the conditions that caused the blowout at Tiwi? Will the minister confirm that his predecessor did not tell the truth?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the changes that were made within the Power and Water Authority relate purely to the way it undertakes its maintenance program. This entire episode of power outage comes back to the failure of a piece
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of equipment.
Mr Bailey: It says quite clearly in the draft report that the procedure was inappropriate.
Mr POOLE: What it says in the draft report is slightly different from what is said in the official report that I have received from the CEO of the Power and Water Authority. What you have obtained apparently is a draft report that is an internal document.
The causes of the power outage are quite explicit. The fact is that a piece of equipment failed. The argument that the member for Fannie Bay raised as to whether the delay in supplying mobile generators could have been circumvented is debatable. Possibly, if the people working on the fault had realised at the outset exactly what the fault was and how extensive it was, they could have put mobile generators on line far earlier than they did. The fact is that they called for the generators at 1405 hours. They did not call for the generators when the fault first occurred. It took a number of hours to put all the generators on line, not because of a lack of generators but because of a lack of understanding of the problem.
Mr Bailey: The authority's standard of generators would not have ...
Madam SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wanguri will allow the minister to finish his answer.
Mr Bailey: He is not telling the truth.
Madam SPEAKER: That is enough.
Mr POOLE: Madam Speaker, the fact is that the generators were connected as the fault was diagnosed. The initial fault, as I have said 30 times today, was caused by a piece of equipment failing, not by a lack of repairs and maintenance.
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Savings were made by essential travel only being undertaken and by ensuring that all expenditure was absolutely
essential. It resulted in a process that has enabled the services and the operations of PAWA to continue. The
service provided to the community has not deteriorated at all.
Is it not a fact that the 2% cut did affect maintenance programs and the purchase of replacement and spare parts, and did create the conditions that caused the blowout at Tiwi? Will the minister confirm that his predecessor did not tell the truth?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the changes that were made within the Power and Water Authority relate purely to the way it undertakes its maintenance program. This entire episode of power outage comes back to the failure of a piece
Page 10
of equipment.
Mr Bailey: It says quite clearly in the draft report that the procedure was inappropriate.
Mr POOLE: What it says in the draft report is slightly different from what is said in the official report that I have received from the CEO of the Power and Water Authority. What you have obtained apparently is a draft report that is an internal document.
The causes of the power outage are quite explicit. The fact is that a piece of equipment failed. The argument that the member for Fannie Bay raised as to whether the delay in supplying mobile generators could have been circumvented is debatable. Possibly, if the people working on the fault had realised at the outset exactly what the fault was and how extensive it was, they could have put mobile generators on line far earlier than they did. The fact is that they called for the generators at 1405 hours. They did not call for the generators when the fault first occurred. It took a number of hours to put all the generators on line, not because of a lack of generators but because of a lack of understanding of the problem.
Mr Bailey: The authority's standard of generators would not have ...
Madam SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wanguri will allow the minister to finish his answer.
Mr Bailey: He is not telling the truth.
Madam SPEAKER: That is enough.
Mr POOLE: Madam Speaker, the fact is that the generators were connected as the fault was diagnosed. The initial fault, as I have said 30 times today, was caused by a piece of equipment failing, not by a lack of repairs and maintenance.
Page 11
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016