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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (27 October) . . Page.. 2267 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Speaker, we have very glib assertions from those on that side of the chamber that that will not be necessary, that they will be able to manage this problem very well, that we can move the cups around and be able to deal with this $2.9 billion problem. Mr Speaker, I want to see what their plan is to face that liability. I want to know how they would address a problem of that size. It is bigger than anything anybody in this chamber has faced before. It is almost too large to be imaginable in today's terms, but it is a real problem.

I heard Mr Corbell say on television a few weeks ago that the public does not perceive this to be a major problem; so, the Government should be able to manage it. Think about that statement. The public do not see emerging superannuation liabilities as being a big issue; therefore, it is not real.

Mr Corbell: I did not say that. Have you got a quote that has me saying that?

MR HUMPHRIES: It is not real, says Mr Corbell. Of course it is real.

Mr Corbell: Or are you just misrepresenting what I say, again?

MR HUMPHRIES: That is exactly what you said, Mr Corbell.

Mr Corbell: It is exactly what I said, is it? Is that a quote?

MR SPEAKER: Order! If you wish to make a personal explanation at the end of question time, Mr Corbell, you can do so; but do not interject.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the fact is that the problem is real, it is extremely real, and before Mr Corbell, Mr Quinlan or others on that side of the chamber glibly assert that they can manage the problem, I would like to see how they are going to manage the problem. We have put a proposal on the table to address that problem, Mr Speaker, and we believe that it is a sustainable solution to that problem.

Mr Corbell: Only one solution?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, to answer the interjection, which I should not do but I will, the Government, in a release put out by the Chief Minister a couple of days ago, has outlined other alternatives. There are other alternatives to the proposal put forward by the Government. It is just that they are not very attractive alternatives.

One alternative is to increase annual budget payments over three years to $70m and retain that level of expenditure - that is, $70m in 1998 dollars - for the next 28 years. That would cover $1.9 billion of the $2.9 billion debt that the ACT will incur over the next four years.

Mr Speaker, $70m buys an awful lot of hospital beds, school places, police officers, bus routes and all sorts of other services vital to the people of the ACT. I do not want to be part of a government which has to cut back on all of those things in order to meet a liability which relates principally not to the generation actually paying the liability,

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