Page 4176 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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My short answer is that the profits belong to the NRMA.
So, there is no doubt that this money - any surplus profit - belonged to the NRMA, just as if, I should say, the miscalculation had gone the other way. Had there been a year in which the number of claims rapidly escalated and the quantum of damages rapidly escalated, any loss would clearly be the NRMA's, just as it would be any other insurance company's.
It is a business. In this case the business, due to a range of factors, was remarkably profitable and record profits were posted, as they were for a number of commercial enterprises, throughout the 1980s. But, uniquely, this insurance company was prepared to come to the Canberra community and say, "We really think we want to enter into an agreement with you to put that money back into the community". I commend the NRMA for that. The Government Solicitor's opinion makes it abundantly clear that that is the case; that the money was the NRMA's.
There were some statements made, around the time of the Estimates Committee hearings, that the Government had been dragging the chain on this issue and that we should have just legislated to get the money. That is simply stuff and nonsense. The money was the NRMA's, lawfully. There is no way that the ACT Government could do anything to force that money to be paid over. We could not pass legislation to somehow appropriate that $40m. Members would be aware that paragraph 23(1)(a) of what is effectively our constitution, the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988, provides that the ACT Assembly has no power to make laws with respect to the acquisition of property other than on just terms.
This so-called excess profit was clearly the property of the NRMA, according to the Government Solicitor. If there was any proposal to pass legislation in this place to say to the NRMA, "You hand that money over to the Government; it is going into Consolidated Revenue", such a law would clearly be beyond the Assembly's power, because it would be an acquisition of property without compensation. The NRMA, obviously, has not wanted to get to that position. It has all along been open.
The negotiations occurred for a short period under the first Labor Government; they then continued through the period of the Alliance Government; and they were brought to a successful conclusion a couple of weeks ago when Mr Corrigan, the chief of NRMA Insurance from Sydney, and I were able to announce to the Canberra community that there had been an amicable resolution and that a pay-out to the motorists, to the citizens of Canberra, would begin shortly, based upon a long-term defraying of the third-party premiums that people will have to pay and a trust fund for projects to benefit the motorist. That trust fund
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