[Greens-Media] Public Interest - a joke?

[Manderson, Roland]

=======================================
ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey MEDIA RELEASE
=======================================

Fri 26 May 06


Public Interest - is it all just a joke?

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has expressed concern that Koomarri - under ActewAGL Chief Executive John Mackay - appears not to understand the social impact of its business decisions. 

"It shouldn't have been hard for Koomarri to assess the social impact of its decision to sell the Long Stay Park as well as its expected financial return" Dr Foskey said today.

"But Koomarri doesn't appear to have done that, and the ACT Government has never asked it to."

"Koomarri president John Mackay is the Chief Executive of ActewAGL. It is a great concern that he and his business associates on the Koomarri board, such as James Service and Stephen Byron, haven't demonstrated the skills or the inclination to analyse the social impacts of their decisions." 

"Of course, the position of Canberra's business people might be that they feel they have no obligation to accept responsibility for the impact their actions have on the lives of others.  They might see their only responsibility is to maximise profit in the short term, for their shareholders."

 "Sadly, such a view is consistent with the ACT Government's stance in the Assembly last year when I moved to amend the Financial Management Act to ensure the boards of Territory instrumentalities would understand the social and environmental impacts of their decisions. Treasurer Quinlan rejected those amendments as irrelevant." 

 "The ACT Government's own Social Plan, on the other hand, does value an inclusive society that respects and supports meaningful community." 
 
 "If the Canberra business community is unable to take those values more seriously, the Assembly will need to need to give Canberra people a legal right to challenge business decisions on their social or environmental impact."

"And if the ACT Labor Party cannot come at that, maybe it should abandon its Social Plan altogether" Dr Foskey said.

===============================
Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey  
Legislative Assembly for the ACT 
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au ===== 
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This email, and any attachments, may be confidential and also privileged.
If you are not the intended recipient:
Please notify the sender and delete all copies of this transmission along with any attachments immediately.
You should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------