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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1934 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

The Assembly must question the Government's commitment to developing and implementing strategies to deal with the superannuation liability. The Government's response to the committee last year illustrates it is still without a firm strategy. Once again, we have this trend in this year's response. Last year they agreed with the Assembly recommendation; this year they agree with the recommendation in principle only. Agreement in principle is not much, coming from this Government. Like most things this Government does, strategic thinking and logical and comprehensive public policy are not as important as glossy presentation designed to impress the media, to filibuster and to engineer a few media stories. We have yet to see a response from the Government.

The deficit is the next matter. Building on my comments regarding superannuation and the Government's lack of commitment to a strategic approach, I believe it is necessary to comment on the Government's approach to the structural deficit. The deficit is a difficult issue to resolve in the ACT, and the Liberal-induced recession has not done much to assist the situation. But borrowing, whether through pillaging the coffers of ACTEW as they have done this year or entering into sale and lease-back arrangements, is still borrowing and does not address the underlying deficit.

Last year's Estimates Committee report said the sale and lease-back arrangement was really borrowings. The Government denied it. However, the Estimates Committee's assessment and the Opposition's assessment was later confirmed by both the Auditor-General and Standard and Poor's. This Government is incapable of being honest about its approach to dealing with the deficit. They are incapable of fixing the problem. Last year the Government tried to tell us they were running a cash surplus. No-one believed them; everyone has even forgotten they ever claimed they were running a cash surplus; and everyone now believes they were running a cash deficit, because that was the truth. Such borrowings do not represent a deficit reduction strategy of government, as the Government would have everyone believe.

Like many other policy decisions of this Government, there is no long-term strategic approach; they are governing for now only, just for today. The response to comments in the Estimates Committee report about the ACT's overall financial position demonstrates the concern of the Estimates Committee with this. Yes; the Government has made some changes which have brought some gains in terms of efficiency and small reductions in operating expenses of government. The Auditor-General, however, states in his report on the operating loss last year that there are:

... important management actions which should reduce costs ... [they] appear however to be insufficient to make a major impression on the size of the Territory's operating losses.

The committee had the right to conclude as they did. Again, we have seen a shallow response from this Government. (Extension of time granted)

Mr Speaker, the last point I want to make about the Government's response to the Estimates Committee's report is in relation to ACTEW and borrowings. The committee raised concerns about the Government's deceitful and duplicitous attempts to disguise its borrowings. Over the next two years the Government will receive around $305m

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