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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3181 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

of the sale of ACTEW. It was felt that these were all self-evident, that we did not need to look into it, that we did not need to investigate it, that the people of this place, let alone the people of Canberra, not only did not need to be involved in the debate at that level, but also should not be given the opportunity of being involved in the debate at that level.

The fall-back position we adopted in negotiation with some members of the crossbench was that we would have a select committee, because there are members of the select committee ostensibly insisting that they would make their decision on whether ACTEW should be sold on the basis of whether the ACT could meet its unfunded superannuation liabilities. They are the ostensible reasons that certain members of the Assembly are giving for whether or not they need to continue to consider this matter.

Whilst, of course, that debate turned into something of a farce, the proposal was eventually passed; it was concluded. The membership, I think, has now been concluded. The committee is up and operational. It has met, it is meeting, it is actually developing its work plan and it will not be reporting, pursuant to the resolution of this Assembly, until February. Even that is a very short timeframe. Even that imposes enormous demands on the members of the committee to deal with all the issues relating to our unfunded superannuation liability - an issue completely separate, of course, from whether we should be selling ACTEW, an issue which has absolutely nothing to do with whether we should be selling ACTEW.

The question of whether we can meet our superannuation liabilities has absolutely nothing to do with whether ACTEW should be sold or what the financial, economic or job implications are of selling ACTEW for the people of the ACT. It is a pity that in debating whether we should be selling ACTEW, whether we should be passing this Bill, we are concentrating on whether we can meet our unfunded superannuation liabilities.

Those issues have been dealt with in a very interesting way. We had the circumstance of the Towers Perrin report commissioned by the ACT Government, which reported in April of this year and the report was tabled by the Chief Minister in May of this year. It is very interesting to chronicle the changes in the Chief Minister's attitude to these things. It is very interesting to look at the Chief Minister's statement to the Assembly on the day that she tabled the Towers Perrin report. The Chief Minister said, amongst other things, something initially which we all agree with:

There is clearly no easy solution for these superannuation financing issues.

We all agree with that. It is a difficult issue. The Chief Minister went on to say something which I think she now regrets she ever said, but which is really pertinent to this debate. She went on:

We must look for a proper balance between paying now or paying later.

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