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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1143 ..

MRS CARNELL: As I am the Treasurer, I will take that question. Mr Speaker, the pricing commissioner is at arm's length from government and makes determinations at arm's length from government, although there was a discussion that I and, I think, Mr Kaine as well had with the pricing commissioner, at which time he made comments about ACTEW's capital structure. He said that he believed very strongly that ACTEW's debt-equity ratio was far too low and made comments, as he made in that report, that debt-equity ratios of that sort can lead, shall we say, to management decisions that might not be totally efficient. That sort of discussion was had with the pricing commissioner, but certainly we did not pre-empt our budget to the pricing commissioner.

MR WHITECROSS: Since Mr Kaine is not answering, I ask the Chief Minister a supplementary question. Given that the pricing commissioner was unable to factor these additional imposts you have placed on ACTEW into the pricing structure, will you now concede that the costs of the dividend demanded from ACTEW will be passed on to the consumer sooner or later in the form of increased water and electricity charges?

MRS CARNELL: No. As I answered yesterday, that simply will not be the case. The pricing commissioner made it very clear that he believed ACTEW, if they chose to borrow, could handle a significantly greater debt than they currently have. He made the point in that commission report that what he was looking at was ACTEW's capacity to generate revenue, not ACTEW's debt burdens, how much cash they had in the bank or any of those sorts of things. In fact, the pricing commissioner made it very clear, as I am sure the Fay Richwhite report which is currently under way will also make it clear, that if they decide to borrow - they may choose not to borrow, of course, and fund out of cash reserves and long-term investments - that would not affect his pricing determination. Quite seriously, without equivocation, he said that it would not affect his pricing determination at all. In fact, he makes that quite clear in his report.

MR SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of the University of the Third Age, who are looking at parliamentary education. Welcome to your Assembly.

MRS LITTLEWOOD: My question is to the Chief Minister. In mid-1996 this Government put into place strategies to stimulate investment and job growth in Canberra to counter Federal Government cutbacks. Can you advise me and this Assembly whether these policies have been successful, based on the latest data on the ACT labour market?

MRS CARNELL: I would like the Assembly to notice that Mr Whitecross and Mr Berry left at this particular moment in question time.

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