Page 2532 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 1994
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That also will come in September, we are told. How do you put together a budget if you do not know what your interest payments are going to be and if you do not know what your debt servicing costs are going to be? Obviously, some figure was determined, but the Estimates Committee had a lot of trouble trying to find out what it was. Similarly with the superannuation liability. It was impossible for the Estimates Committee to get a real figure for the superannuation liability for the Territory - what it is costing us now, what it is likely to cost us in the future, and whether the Assembly and the people of Canberra down the track are likely to be able to afford it.
One of the most interesting parts of the budget from my perspective was the presentation of the estimates material itself. That again was something that the Estimates Committee picked up. Anybody who is interested in being totally bemused should turn to page 17 of the Estimates Committee report and read Mr Morgan's response, which is printed in full, when asked to explain to the committee exactly what outturn prices were and how they were used. I could read it into Hansard but it is already here, and I am sure that everybody who reads it will be as surprised as the Estimates Committee was. I think it would be impossible for any mortal to understand. In fact, the Treasury officials themselves suggested that there was no way that the budget reports, as they were presented to the Estimates Committee, could be interpreted. They admitted it. They admitted that the figures simply were not there. I do not believe - and I am sure that the Estimates Committee does not believe, Ms Follett - that it is acceptable to bring down a budget that it is impossible for even people with economics degrees to interpret. It was interesting to read that economists from the ANU suggest that the budget was impenetrable even for academics in the economics field. Certainly, the Estimates Committee felt the same.
The amazing situation that occurred with regard to the diesel fuel tax has already been spoken about this evening. The Government said that it had collected the tax on fuel bought from New South Wales and used in the ACT, but it was not able to cite any legislation which allowed it to do that. Does that mean, Ms Follett, that the tax has been collected illegally? Or does it mean that the tax has not been collected? On one side we have the situation that the tax has been collected illegally. On the other side we have people who did not tell the truth to the Estimates Committee. Either is not terribly attractive, and the Estimates Committee certainly felt that.
I will move on to the casino premium. I was amazed, as I am sure were the rest of the Estimates Committee, as reported in the report, to find out that only 20 per cent of the premium had been allocated. We were also interested to see that there really was no effort whatsoever to use the money this financial year. It will be used down the track somewhere, we are told. This certainly does back up the view already put by Mr Kaine and others that this money that belongs to the people of Canberra was going to be used to buy votes during the next election. I can be confident that every member of the Estimates Committee will be looking very hard at that.
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