Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Tuesday 7 April 2009

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - The debate so far has been quite comprehensive and I will try to stick to one of the salient points that I believe are important in discussing this matter.

First of all, I wanted to relate to the GBEs and these committees. As I understand it, these committees are set up to look at the performances and their returns and the effectiveness and the efficiencies and the value for money of these organisations and at the end of that process to make conclusions and some recommendations, as we have done. I believe that this is an extremely important function of these committees. We take the position very seriously and we put a lot of effort into ensuring that we talk to those people that we believe can assist us moving forward in coming to a good position when looking at each one of these government business enterprises.

I find it difficult for us to conclude our duty properly when we are not provided with good information or not provided with accurate information. I believe that was certainly the case in relation to TOTE and I am going to start there. We were not given the full facts of the position that related to TOTE at the time of our inquiring into it. On 4 December I asked a question of the Treasurer. I had very reliable information, therefore I was prompted to ask a question of the Treasurer in relation to a potential sale of TOTE. When the Treasurer answered and made the comment, 'At the moment, the government policy is not to sell TOTE', I was extremely disappointed.

Ms Thorp - You cannot make a statement as a member of the Government unless something has been through Cabinet. So, if this Cabinet has ticked off on it you cannot -

Mr DEAN - I do not accept that under any circumstances.

Ms Thorp - It is true.

Mr DEAN - I believe that there was another answer that the Treasurer could have given, if that was the situation, to have not come out and made that categoric statement because that is what it was and we know now, at the time, that the sale was well and truly under way.

Ms Thorp - There is no sale under way. We have not even passed the legislation yet.

Mr DEAN - Processes have been put into place. There was discussion -

Ms Thorp - You do not make serious decisions in five minutes, do you?

Mr DEAN - A consultant had been employed. So then for me to find out on the, I think it was, 22 December on the press release that was made that the sale of TOTE had been signed up, or a potential sale of TOTE, to say that I was disappointed is an understatement at best and, as I said, I was disappointed.

Therefore, you immediately start to think about what else were you not told that perhaps was vital in these businesses that you were looking at. You tend to lose some faith in the process. That is what I did. I lost some faith in this process of investigating the GBEs.

Mr Wilkinson - Did you feel like a mushroom?

Mr DEAN - I felt like a mushroom. I absolutely felt like a mushroom. It did not have to occur that way. If you go to Business Week on the Net, as I did last night and I guess other members have as well, and there will be greater reference made to this I dare say at a later time in this Chamber by somebody - I do not know whether I will be here but somebody probably will be, we would hope - one of the headings reads 'TOTE Tasmania to be privatised by June 2009'. Then there is a whole spiel underneath of the reasons it is going to be sold. That, with what happened today, just rubs salt into the wound. But that is not what we are discussing today. We are discussing the businesses of the GBES so I will continue without going into too much detail on that. I was absolutely disappointed, to say the least.

The other thing that I can say was somewhat of a disappointment too was the decision made for the lighting at Mowbray at Tasman Park. Well it is now called, what is called? I am not quite sure what the new name of the centre is because it has had three names.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - TRC.

Mr DEAN - TOTE Racing Centre.

Ms Thorp - Tasmanian.

Mr DEAN - So that is likely to have another change, I would think.

Ms Thorp - Tasmanian.

Mr DEAN - Tasmanian Racing Centre. Whether that will remain the name of that centre, I am not too sure. It has had a number of name changes - Mowbray Racing Course or something like that, then Tasman Park and then the Tasmanian Racing Centre. So we have had all of those changes.

An announcement was made that Mowbray was going to get lighting. I am aware that some of the members involved in the Mowbray racing circuit were not even aware of that. The information was given to me they were not even aware of that. So that sort of information comes out.

There was a lot of discussion during our GBE in relation to the track at Mowbray and the new track and we are all waiting now to see whether or not that will stand up. The reports we got during this inquiry were all very heartening. That track has gone in well, it has settled down well and we have had a number of meetings on it since then and that track has held up. There was discussion and our chair, I think, referred to the track at Tattersalls Park at Elwick, where there are some issues as to what the future is concerning the track, the width of the track and the two tracks running side by side. But very clearly racing is a very, very important industry in this State employing somewhere between 2 000 and 3 000 people. It is a fairly big industry in Tasmania and we therefore need to ensure that whatever happens is in the best interests of all those employees, of the industry moving forward and for Tasmania. But, as I said, I am not going to go into the position of TOTE anymore other than to reiterate my absolute disappointment at what had happened.

The rest of TOTE has been covered. I do not intend to go into that. Just briefly on the Port Arthur site: Mr Stephen Large, in my view, is an absolutely wonderful CEO. I have known Stephen Large for a long time. He was my coach as a football umpire. I can go back a number of years. He was very good in that arena and that area as well, or on that arena.

Mr Hall - He has a lot to answer for. He did not teach you much.

Mr DEAN - He is an exemplary CEO, in my view, and that is probably why Port Arthur is doing so well, because you do need a very strong and approachable person in that position. It was just amazing when you walked around with that man. Whilst he was walking around, he was picking up rubbish off the track and depositing it in the rubbish bins. It was something you would not see in too many CEOs. There are not too many CEOs -

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - School principals do it.

Mr DEAN - School principals do, do they?

Mrs Jamieson - Politicians do, too.

Mr DEAN - Politicians probably do. I do not know. There were two issues I raised, Madam President. One was in relation to the site around the Port Arthur precinct. That is, the clear-felling to which I referred. I raised that during the hearings. I believe that we need to be very, very careful in relation to forestry operations near that site. I was satisfied after some discussion that that is being closely monitored and closely -

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - And compensation paid.

Mr DEAN - Is it? And closely considered, because when people go to that site I think they would want to see native forests almost in every direction.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - And it is all private forest.

Mr DEAN - Yes, private forestry. But I still believe that there need to be some strict controls and protocols put into place in relation to that area moving forward.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - And there is compensation paid for people not logging their land.

Mr DEAN - Yes. So I was reasonably satisfied after those discussions with the board members and the minister, that it is, and will be, moving in the right direction. The other one was the building that Federal Hotels is currently involved in or is likely to build. That needs to be very carefully considered and it would need to fit in very much with that area and with the buildings there as well. I am confident that will happen because I am told that there has been a lot of work done in relation to that. So that is heartening. The other issue that I raised, Madam President, was that many of these buildings are fretting away with pieces falling out and off them and so on. I asked a question of how can we be -

Mr Parkinson - It is called old age. I know how they feel.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - Old age. You are right. I do too. How can we be assured that the integrity of those buildings will be maintained into the long term? We were told - and I have lost the word and somebody will probably pick it up for me - what is happening is that all of these buildings have been, with the technology that they have, with laser - that is not the right word - photographed and they can identify to a very close scale exactly how these buildings currently are, so if something does fall apart, if something does happen, they can restore it to where it was prior to its falling away. That is done through the computer system and it is very closely controlled. They have done that now, as I understand it, on all of the buildings.

Ms Ritchie - Through a sort of digital imaging-type process?

Mr DEAN - I cannot remember what it was.

Mrs Jamieson - No, it was a particular term.

Mr DEAN - I tried to pick it up last night and I missed it everywhere I looked for it. It is done to scale and we are assured that the integrity of those buildings can be maintained probably forever, even if it means restoring them and maintaining them and adding to them and so on. So once again that was a good point and I was very pleased to know that was the situation. The other one that I raised was the security at the site and we all know that there was a theft from the site in relation to bricks, in particular.

Ms Thorp - The bricks are coming back.

Mr DEAN - Yes, that is what is now happening and I was going to go on and say that.

Ms Thorp - Sorry.

Mr DEAN - With the advertising, people are bringing back a lot of that memorabilia. I think that all we are doing is making Port Arthur even more attractive from a tourism point of view.

I am told there is not a lot of security there.

Ms Thorp - Plenty of ball and chain.

Members laughing.

Mrs Jamieson - In single cells.

Mr DEAN - I will continue, Madam President. I am told that with the coalmines there will be special security provided to ensure that is maintained in the right way and that there is proper control with people visiting that site.

But one does need to be aware of those things happening. A convict brick is a fairly prized possession and there are many people who, I would suggest, would be visiting that site with probably the intention to souvenir something - I will not use any other word.

Ms Thorp - True, but you have to remember too, those ruins have been part of the community - through you, Madam President - for a very, very long time and, on a scale of one to 10, I would suggest it is quite amazing how well the general community has looked after those sites. Some of them have been on private property with sheep grazing in them for years.

Mr DEAN - Yes, you are right, because the community understands and realises the value of these sites and what it means to Tasmania moving forward. So, very clearly, that is the situation.

Mr Wilkinson - Through you, Madam President - it is a strange thing we are talking about, isn't it, because here we are, lauding, really, our convict past. Why not keep the Campbell Street jail, one could ask, over in Victoria? Jails seem to have a fascination and yet you ask yourself, why?

Ms Thorp - An embarrassment of riches almost.

Mr DEAN - One other thing on the Port Arthur site I wanted to mention is a close partnership with the University of Tasmania. A lot of work is being done with the University of Tasmania, and I did raise this during the hearing, but when you go to the web site to look at what is happening in that regard, I could not find anything in relation to the partnerships and what is happening with the Port Arthur site and the University of Tasmania. I think I am right in saying that during those hearings, an indication was given that there might be some updating of that site so I think that that is important because from a student's point of view, if you were doing a study in relation to that site - and a lot of them do - they want to know what is happening there, they want to know what other groups they can go to, who else is involved and all of those things. I think it is vital that the site cover all of those partnerships and what is happening in that regard.

I want to go on to the Motor Accidents Insurance Board and the first question I can ask is whether that will probably be sold because I think it was indicated to us it would not be sold, so it probably will be sold. I do not know when and where. I guess we just wait and see what happens in the future. I am not too sure now either.

Ms Thorp - Such cynicism from someone so young.

Ms Ritchie - Do you take the same view when people say, 'Oh, we're going to vote for you'?

Mr DEAN - I am glad you raised that - I am very, very, very -

Madam PRESIDENT - Let us stay with the reports. If it is not in here, we do not want to hear about it.

Mr DEAN - Madam President, you are not going to give me just five minutes?

Madam PRESIDENT - No, we are on the report of the government business enterprise committee.

Mr DEAN - Because I am very disappointed about that as well, Madam President, extremely disappointed.

Ms Ritchie - The disappointments are mounting up.

Mr DEAN - I wanted to refer to MAIB and where we are with MAIB moving forward. It is interesting to note that 40 per cent - this is the evidence coming from MAIB - of crashes in Tasmania are run off road crashes and another 10 per cent are head on crashes. You will notice that the MAIB is currently making a contribution, I think, of $3 million indexed annually to the Road Safety Taskforce.

I wonder, with those statistics, whether or not the return from the Road Safety Taskforce would be the equivalent of using that $3 million to put in road barriers, the side barriers, the side wires and all of those other things to keep traffic on the road. I just wonder what has happened in that regard and whether or not that has ever been looked at to see what would or what might provide the best return from a crash point of view. In that very tragic situation on the weekend we are told that the vehicle only narrowly missed the end of either a wire rope or another barrier and then it ran into a tree. That is the sort of example I want to use.

I just wonder how much work has been done on that to see just where the best value would be for MAIB money expended in that area. I also know that the MAIB are putting in money for infrastructure. They are putting money into the black spot areas and also they are putting in $1 million over the next three years for infrastructure projects and the installation of wire rope barriers has been the first project undertaken. If you added to that another $3 million that would be a lot of wire rope and roadside barriers and very clearly it would provide safer roads for our drivers in this State. It is a point worth considering.

The other matter that I raised during the hearing, Madam President, was the position in regard to the entitlement of drivers or passengers in vehicle accidents or crashes to make a claim on the Motor Accidents Insurance Board. We were told that for a claim to be accepted the crash must have first been reported to the police. I just find this quite strange and I raised this at the time. They say the reason for that is to minimise fraudulent claims. However, I find it difficult to understand how that would minimise fraudulent claims because it means, and I did question about this, that I could ring the police from my home and say that I had been involved in a crash at such and such a place at such and such a time and that could be recorded from there and, as I understand it on the information that I was given from the Motor Vehicle Accidents Insurance Board, that claim could then probably be met without the police having actually visited the scene.

What better evidence could you get for a claim than, say, a doctor or a casualty area of a hospital, and a lot of people do this.

Mr Parkinson - It's not a legislative requirement, is it?

Mr DEAN - It is a legislative requirement. That is my understanding. I will read from the bottom of page 15 and I am confident that was the evidence we were given:

'For a claim to be accepted the legislation provides that an incident be reported to the police. If the police do not attend the accident there is an expectation that the person physically report it to police and fill out the required form. The provision was included in the legislation as a fraud-minimisation strategy.'

I understand that is accurate from the information that we were given. I asked what would be the difference in a person reporting to a doctor or to a hospital with some minor injuries and those injuries being consistent with an accident and that report then being accepted by MAIB. I was told at the hearing, either by Mr Hogan or by the minister, or it might have been another board member, that I should now put a report in to the minister along those lines and that they may well listen to it.

Mr Parkinson - It appears to me it wasn't that way when I was in practice, but things can change.

Mr DEAN - I understand that. If you go a little further into our report it indicates that there are cases of where the MAIB have received and accepted claims where a report has not been made to police. They have said that in some extreme cases they have accepted that. So, obviously, they are able to use a bit of flexibility there somewhere, even though it appears as though it is legislated.

The other matter I wanted to raise, Madam President, is the number of people using off road vehicles and the number of people who have presented to hospitals suffering injuries as a result of that. It is interesting to know that if you have an off road vehicle you can elect to pay a premium to MAIB and I do not think many people would be aware of that. This came from the board as well during our questioning process, that you can apply to the MAIB and take out a premium for an off road vehicle. You are then covered should you have an accident in an off road motorcycle in the bush or in the scrub. Perhaps we should be promoting that more. I am of the view that in any off road vehicles there should be a compulsory scheme with the MAIB to ensure that people in those situations are covered because of the abundance of off road motorcycle accidents that we are currently experiencing.

Madam President, I just want to pay tribute to our chairman who performed her task extremely well and led our meeting in an extremely professional manner. She presented today very professionally as well and thanks to the others for their contribution. Also I want to thank the three organisations that we were involved with because they, in most instances, appeared to want to bring everything out and discuss it with us, so that we could then make a decision on all of that information. They went overboard, in some instances, to make sure that we saw things and were taken about the sites to see whatever we needed to see.

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