Mr STIRLING - 1999-02-18
The Country Liberal Party administration has placed Margaret Lyons, head of the Attorney-General’s Department, on the board of Paul Everingham’s NT Power transmission company. Is it not a fact that this private company is doing business with the government and is potentially in competition with the government’s power provider? Can he advise how Margaret Lyons juggles her duties as a public servant to protect Territory taxpayers on the one hand and to implement government policy, and on the other her duty to protect and enhance the interests of shareholders in Paul Everingham’s company?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I guess the opposition spokesman on essential services has nothing personal against Margaret Lyons, and he would also have nothing personal against Dennis Bree, who has also been a nominee of that particular company. If the honourable member for Nhulunbuy wants to go and check the PAC records he will find that, under the chairmanship of the then member for Karama, there is a great deal of information relating to NT Power and the 132KV line from Katherine to Darwin, where all these matters were canvassed. I could refer him to that.
Our involvement in that corporation has been a matter for the PAC and I don’t believe that there is any conflict of interest at all. Indeed, it is a matter of protecting the consumers of the Northern Territory. What were you to do? Enter into a contract that was open-ended, so that this corporation could have said that their operations and expenditure had exceeded what we thought they would? We would have no control over it. I understand that our 10% gives us almost a veto power – so that we can veto the operational budget if we do not agree with it. That is simply a fire wall, a safety check to ensure that the consumers in the Northern Territory are not ripped off.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I guess the opposition spokesman on essential services has nothing personal against Margaret Lyons, and he would also have nothing personal against Dennis Bree, who has also been a nominee of that particular company. If the honourable member for Nhulunbuy wants to go and check the PAC records he will find that, under the chairmanship of the then member for Karama, there is a great deal of information relating to NT Power and the 132KV line from Katherine to Darwin, where all these matters were canvassed. I could refer him to that.
Our involvement in that corporation has been a matter for the PAC and I don’t believe that there is any conflict of interest at all. Indeed, it is a matter of protecting the consumers of the Northern Territory. What were you to do? Enter into a contract that was open-ended, so that this corporation could have said that their operations and expenditure had exceeded what we thought they would? We would have no control over it. I understand that our 10% gives us almost a veto power – so that we can veto the operational budget if we do not agree with it. That is simply a fire wall, a safety check to ensure that the consumers in the Northern Territory are not ripped off.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016