Recycling of Glass and Plastic

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Speaker, during question time this afternoon Ms Horodny asked me a question in relation to glass and other materials. I am advised, Mr Speaker, that the first four months of the operation of the kerbside recycling collection service resulted in the collection of 8,848 tonnes of recyclables, comprising 4,740 tonnes of paper, 3,455 tonnes of glass, 146 tonnes of PET, 97 tonnes of HDPE, 8 tonnes of PVC, 74 tonnes of liquid paper board, 93 tonnes of aluminium and 235 tonnes of steel cans. Overall, the collection of household garbage for disposal and landfill was over 20 per cent lower than for the same period last year. I will try to get some statistics in terms of the ACT Government and answer the second part of your question at a later time.

GOVERNMENT SERVICE - SENIOR POSITIONS

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition): I seek leave to make a statement on a matter which arose in question time, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Do you claim to have been misrepresented?

MS FOLLETT: I do.

MR SPEAKER: Is leave granted? Leave is granted. This is under standing order 47, I presume.

MS FOLLETT: Whatever; I leave the technicalities to you. If I have leave, I have leave, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Leave is granted to make a statement. Please proceed.

MS FOLLETT: Thank you. Mr Speaker, during question time Mr Kaine asked Mrs Carnell a question about the number of SES positions in the public service. I wish to draw to the attention of the Assembly the annual reports of the Head of Administration for the relevant periods. In the annual report for 1992-93 the total number of SES officers, bands 1 and 2, was 109, and at 30 June 1994 SES band 1 and 2 officers totalled 104. That, in my mathematics, is a reduction of five positions.

I wish to make mention also of the inaccurate reporting, in my view, of the overall wages increase during the period. Mr Speaker, if you look at the figures for 1989-90, the wages bill was some $470m. If you add to that the cost of the addition of the administration of justice function, which came to the Territory after the commencement of self-government, and if you add to it also the ABS’s price deflator to bring the figure into 1993-94 dollars, you will see that the starting figure for the ACT wages bill is some $525m. The figure that the Government is currently asserting is $611m, which is an increase of some 16.3 per cent. It is not an increase of 30 per cent. If you compare that increase of 16.3 per cent to the average weekly earnings increase over the same period, which was some 13.8 per cent, I think most members who were not anxious to misrepresent the situation could see that there is really only a slight increase in the ACT’s wages bill ahead of the increase in average weekly earnings for the period.

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