Page 4174 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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news for the ACT motorist. We have $20m that will be coming on stream in the fairly near future. The proposal is that $10m of that money will be held in a fund to keep third-party premiums low. So, the Canberra motorists, who perhaps can rightly grumble that, as it has turned out, they did pay too much over an eight- or nine-year period - although that was not apparent at the time - will see that the premium that they will pay will be held well below the economic premium.
In the ACT, of course, we are bombarded with advertising that is directed to the New South Wales market, and we see the various claims about how good one company or the other is at undercutting premiums now that there is an open market for third-party insurance in New South Wales. But Canberra motorists should remember that they are now paying $140, while their cousins in Queanbeyan are paying about $220, or more, plus a $40 slug for past losses on the New South Wales system. That $140 is presently $50-odd less than what the economic premium should be. We will be able to hold that, certainly for next year and hopefully for years to come, below the economic premium.
What that will mean next year, when the economic premium probably should be in the order of $200, is that every motorist, when they pay their third-party insurance at the time of registering their car, in effect, will be getting a cheque for $60 from the NRMA, because what they pay on their third-party insurance will be in the order of $60 less than the real cost of that insurance. This money is being used to defray the real cost and to allow ACT motorists to enjoy a substantial advantage in terms of third-party premiums. That is good news for the motorist. That is the result of successful negotiations between the NRMA and the Government.
An announcement has also been made of a trust fund, for which we are, at the moment, looking at a lump sum of $10m. That $10m and the other $10m take us to $20m, which is about half of the expected profit share amount; and we would expect, in future years, to perhaps do it again. That $10m that will start the trust fund will be used, we would hope, for a range of projects of benefit to, in particular, the Canberra motorists - because they are the people who paid it in the first instance - but also to the Canberra community generally, but with, I would expect, a motorist theme, because that is where the money came from.
We will be having a board of trustees to administer that money. It will be independent of government. It is not, as I keep stressing, consolidated revenue. There will be two representatives from the NRMA, there will be two representatives from the ACT Government and there will be an independent chair. I would expect that those trustees would be open to suggestions from members of the community or community groups as to where some of that money could go.
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