PINDAN GROUP — GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
139. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Finance:
I have a supplementary question. Can
the minister assure the communities of Port Hedland, Peel, Kwinana, Northam and
others throughout the state that projects awarded to Pindan will be completed,
given the company has collapsed?
Dr A.D.
BUTI replied:
I can assure the member that this
government is working as hard as it can to ensure that the situation that has
been brought about by Pindan being put into administration is alleviated as
much as possible. As the member knows, last night, we introduced groundbreaking
legislation in Australia. I know the member supported it, so I am sure he
agrees with that. That is one avenue. As the member knows, the Department of
Finance has project bank accounts for many of the projects with Pindan, to
ensure that we can honour the contracts as much as possible with regard to the
separate bank accounts.
As the member also knows, this is a difficult
situation. The Minister for Housing is also working as hard as he possibly can
to ensure that the contracts we have with Pindan for housing maintenance
continue. Whether they continue in their current format, with the
administration active in respect of Pindan, or we find alternative sources of
labour from other subcontractors et cetera, those are matters that we are
investigating. I can assure the member that he can be confident that this
government is doing everything it possibly can with regard to this matter.